Special Concurrent City Council and Redevelopment Agency Meeting May 4, 2009

0:00:22and welcome to the council chambers I'd like to call the special city council meeting of Monday May 4th 2009 to order we will be holding a concurrent session of the city council and the Redevelopment agency and we will start with a roll call council member Chang here council

0:00:43member Lyman here council member abson here council member Jones here mayor Potter here please join me in the pledge I pled allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and

0:01:07justice for so we have a number of staff and Council Communications I wanted to start out by saying that on Saturday there was a quorum of the Elsa city council who attended a workshop here in the council chambers to discuss and become more informed on the um special election

0:01:34ballot proposition measures that will be um voted on on May 19th and assembly member Nancy Skinner LED that discussion and council members Lyman Jones and myself uh attended that meeting and that was duly uh noticed I want to let others know that that did occur here on

0:01:52Saturday um we met earlier to interview for boards and commissions I have a couple of appointments to make the city council appointed hail Cronenberg to the financial Advisory Board Michelle jaad to the human relations commission and Paul Linsky to the arts and culture

0:02:14commission and we appreciate the applicants and are pleased to welcome those folks to our commissions there any other Council Communications Mr Jones the uh San Pablo Avenue specific plan uh committee met last week and just wanted to report out that um we're going we're going forward

0:02:38we're towards the end of it we should have a report and a recommendation from the from the committee uh by the end of the year there are several uh well there's uh two to three public meetings still to be held and uh then there's also the environmental review uh for the

0:02:59that plan will be held later on in the year if you're interested in getting those dates um they should be available at the uh Community Development Department soon well it'll also be reported to city council thank you thank you I'll ATT I'll uh announce mine under

0:03:21the other section under um assignments okay any other Council Communications uh I just want to remind everyone acknowledge What a Beautiful Day Earth day was I was a um work uh leader at at tasahara Park where we worked hard to remove Ivy from some of the trees that are there and uh tahia

0:03:42school um participated and planted a couple helped plant a couple of trees there so thank you thank you Mr Lyman and I wanted to also thank everyone who donated the art supplies uh for the Earth Day recycled art table which was also very successful um and thank the

0:03:58staff for their hard work on Earth Day are there any other staff Communications aside from the um item that's noted on the agenda Monica courtz Recreation director good evening um since the passing of Bruce many suggestions have come our way in regards to honoring

0:04:20Bruce's memory as you may be aware Bruce was an avid dog lover I believe he had up to nine dogs himself I often asked asked them how did you feed all those dogs they'd say well this one has this food and this one has that so with the support of his family first his friends and co-workers the

0:04:42city is accepting donations in remembrance of Bruce to support the creation of a dog park in eloro and I'd like to note that over the past three years the Park and Recreation Commission with Bruce's help have been working on the idea of having a dog park and El

0:04:59Sero thank you thank you Madame mayor council members Michael Bond the Fire Marshall and I just like to uh inform you that even though it's raining currently next week we are going to begin our annual vegetation management inspections and uh Court enforcement and let you know that that's

0:05:23coming about and we'll have the non-compliant list for you to review in your June meeting thank you thank you any other Communications okay we're now going to move on to item three oral Communications from the public and I understand that there's some um concern

0:05:46about what is appropriate under this item normally at this time we hear comments for items either on the consent calendar or items that are not otherwise on the agenda so I'll ask the city clerk to to um read our policies for taking comment under this period and remind

0:06:05folks about our timing system this place on the agenda is reserved for comments and inquiries from the public regarding matters on the agenda and matters which do not otherwise appear on the agenda all persons wishing to speak should sign up with the city clerk remarks are

0:06:19limited remarks are limited to three minutes per person please state your name and city of residence for the record comments regarding non-agenda presentation and consent calendar items will be heard first comments related to items appearing on the public hearing or

0:06:33policy matter portions of the agenda are taken up at the time the city council deliberates each action item individuals wishing to comment on any closed session item scheduled after the regular meeting May do so during this public comment period or after formal announcement of

0:06:49the closed session we have a speaker Timing System up here there are three lights on the presentation table um green yellow and red when you begin speaking the light will turn green when the light turns yellow you'll know that you have one minute to sum up and when you when the light turns red you'll

0:07:08know that your time has concluded and with that it looks like all the speakers we have are for item number six okay I see that there are many people who have taken the time to come out to the meeting tonight um I going to propose to the council that we move item six up to follow the um

0:07:35presentation from the fire department so that we would have the order of items four item six and then we go back to item five if there are no objections we can hear them in that order that's fine yes it's fine so I very much um appreciate the fire department being present here

0:07:55today to give us an overview of the many important Services they provide in the city Madame mayor members of the council uh first off uh I'm Lance Maples I'm your fire chief thank you for making time out of your busy schedule to allow the fire department Command Staff to

0:08:14make a presentation tonight the presentation will be given to you by the operations Chief Michael pagoni um he doesn't do many presentations with the city council he usually is here when we're buying fire trucks because as you know he's our fleet manager um I just

0:08:28wanted to give him an opportunity to showcase some of his skills in the Operations Division and some of the technical aspects of the job that he handles as our operations Chief so what you will see is about a 20-minute presentation on a complete overview of your fire department and we'll leave

0:08:45some time at the end for questions great thank you thank you okay let's see if it's going to work for this beautiful good evening Madame mayor council members um pleased to have this opportunity to present to you city council and members of the public here an overview of the elero fire department

0:09:11and in addition with that some of our accomplishments over this past year to truly understand and appreciate these undertakings it's only fair to go over or to cover how the fire department works fire department is broke up into four divisions operations which deals

0:09:28with the data day functions our Training Division which ensures that our Personnel are always up to the task prevention that not only ensures uh the safety in our businesses and all new construction but also promotes public education and supports services that interlaces all of these segments

0:09:47together the elero fire department's mission statement or so to speak the purpose for existence is not just mere words but they are the goals that our Personnel a group of dedicated individuals who have spent thousands of hours honing their skills will risk their lives to achieve the mission

0:10:05statement breaks down into three main goals first to protect life not only those that live here and pass through here but those that are still on the way second protect property not only the residential and the commercial property but that that provides our jobs and

0:10:21goods and the livelihood to the city but also and then in addition to that we also are going to protect the environment from any effects that can harm it in serving the community the fire department operates out of three fire stations station 71 is located on S Pabo

0:10:39Avenue in the city's public safety building built in 1964 it is the base for both the fire Administration as well as fire prevention it is home to o300 which you'll hear more about truck 71 which was recently purchased from the city of Richmond thank you for that and

0:10:57our Crown Jewel Engine 7 which is our newest engine which besides being fully equipped for ALS medical emergencies is a rescue Engine with both hydraulic and rope rescue equipment being carried on it Station 72 our newest fire station is located adjacent to the miror Vista Golf and

0:11:16Country Club and was built in 1997 it is home to our backup or Reserve engine it's the future home to engine 372 which will be here within a couple of weeks and of course engine 72 the main engine at this station in addition Engine 7 or Station 72 is also a secondary emergency

0:11:36Operation Center and a training building for us station 65 which is staffed and managed by the ELO fire department under a contract for service is the public safety building for the community of Kensington it was built in 1971 and is home to engine 65 and engine 365 a 4x4

0:11:56off-road type 3 engine used for wild land fires the department works very closely with the Kensington Fire Protection District to ensure that we have a seamless environment the illal fire department is staffed with 36 sworn positions and an administrative assistant from the chief

0:12:14on down there are four Battalion Chiefs that cover the three shifts and training there are three captains four engineers and three firefighters on each shift 18 of the 31 line Personnel are also paramedics that provide the life support or the advanced life support measures

0:12:32and with the assistance of the rest of the crews who are all who are trained um to the emergency medical technician level are the ones that are out there when we have our medical emergencies last year the eleral fire department responded to 2,881 calls over 1,500 of these calls

0:12:52were Medical in nature and utilize the advanced life support services offered by our paramedics the fire department responds to many types of emergencies these may be the way people Park their cars could be traffic accidents children locked inside cars trees on the road or into

0:13:09homes Wildland fires structure fires and a whole lot more we fly the flags proudly on our engines and with that same honor we're always there to serve fire department covers an area of over five square miles we provide and receive Mutual Aid or Auto Aid and mutual Aid to and from the city of

0:13:33Richmond Albany and the county in the Richmond Heights area to add on another 60 square miles of response area with our three stations being located 1.7 to 2.8 miles apart from each other we have a median response time of just over four minutes within our normal response area

0:13:53and even better news 90% of the time we are at the scene within or just a touch over 6 minutes and that was documented in the recent lafco um Municipal service response report for fire and medical services uh matter of fact from this report the elero fire department

0:14:11actually has the fastest on scene time in all of Contra Costa County responding quickly and safely to emergencies is crucial in a number of ways first and foremost it is important that we arrive on the scene of a medical emergency in order to initiate life-saving measures in the event of the

0:14:29cardiac and respiratory arrest every minute that passes lowers the chances for saving lives in the event of any trauma our Advanced life support services initiates the life-saving measures of the golden hour in patient survivability when dealing with a structure fire we require a minimum of

0:14:4812 to 15 Personnel on scene to cover all the basic tasks to safely and legally allow firefighters to enter a burning building to rescue trap Personnel or mitigate the fire with our three stations we know that we can have at least 10 of our Personnel on scene to

0:15:04start this process in an acceptable time with the remainder coming through automatic aid from Richmond furthermore our prompt response is important in The crucial time frame involved with the progress of a fire with modern building techniques such as lightweight construction and more

0:15:21plastic components being put into our homes the time temperature curve is drastically Rising meaning the temperatures inside a building are reaching flashover stage very very quickly dramatically reducing the time for us to initiate a rescue and also affecting the safety of our

0:15:39Personnel this fact is so important in that the temperatures inside these structures can rise to over a th000 degrees in 10 minutes or less thus setting up the scene for a flashover and the catastrophic events that follow that no one wants to relive the tragedies that happened um just nor

0:15:58north of us less than two years ago the response efficiency of the fire department has also provided a decrease in fire loss in 2008 the total value of structures involved or the structures that we responded to for fires was valued at over $12 million with a total

0:16:17fire loss in these structures of only $181,000 elero experiences some of the lowest fire losses in both residential and Commercial structures due to the dedication of the Department's Personnel this dedication also plays a role in some of the specialized tasks that the dep at the department

0:16:37provides one of the most visible is o300 it's a 2002 type 1 engine that is owned by the state of California it's also the only yellow one in our Fleet and provide um provided to the city for us to respond with four Personnel anywhere within the state or further as directed

0:16:56by the governor as part of a Statewide wide Strike Team infrastructure the benefit of this engine is that it also serves as a backup engine for the city in time of need this past summer the elero fire department provided at times two staffed fire engines for over 75 days and more

0:17:14than 10,000 um Personnel hours battling the early summer fires in Northern California and the late summer fires in Southern California from which the pictures that you have been seeing were taken from the iron complex fire the freeway T fire the telegraph fire these

0:17:31are just some of the these may be fires that you remember reading about or heard about this past summer we were there in all elero fire department responded to over 15 major blazes last summer and fall throughout the state and I can proudly say that the Personnel of our

0:17:47organization stepped up to ensure that the city was never short of resources and never had to force anybody to fill in the empty slots truck 71 one which has been operated by the fire department for the last four years was recently purchased from the city of Richmond and it brings

0:18:05a new dimension to the services offered with the 105 ft reach elevated Waterway and the extra Salvage and rescue equipment it carries it provides the city with its own aerial no longer having to rise uh rely solely on outside Aid to meet our needs and our ISO requirements it also

0:18:25provides it also provides a stunning view of the area for those that are not afraid of the heights as you see here in 2001 Elso fire department initiated its first Advanced life support engine at station 65 in Kensington this was in due in part to the local to the delays in the local

0:18:44Ambulance Service in the following years Station 72 and 71 also upgraded to the same service today the engines carry over $25,000 worth of medical equipment on each engine to provide our person Personnel every Advantage possible in the field to Save a Life and with the

0:19:02documented response times we have been the difference between life and death numerous times equipment and services aside all of this would not be possible without the men and women that make up our department life in the fire station is the most unique position within the city

0:19:20in that all of us spend onethird of our life on duty or minimum of onethird of our life on duty 10 of us are here 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year that's including the weekends and the holidays in essence while we are all individuals we are also a family that

0:19:38besides the normal Daily Business we cook together we eat together we'll celebrate special occasions and work out to make sure that we are ready at the sound of the alarm in addition to responding to calls for help the fire department provides an array of services to the public both

0:19:55educational from an educational experience and a public service service CPR and first aid are one of the uh are an important skill that everybody should know the fire department offers a number of classes throughout the communities to teach these basic life-saving techniques

0:20:11over a 100 residents took these classes in 2008 the fire department smoke detector program serves to protect our elderly and other residents who would not normally be able to install the life-saving devices in 2008 the elero fire department installed over 100 smoke

0:20:29detectors and changed countless batteries all of this would not be possible without the support from our local our community businesses such as Home Depot and many others who donate the smoke detectors and donate the batteries one of our more important Services is the car seat installation

0:20:47program in partnership with the Contra Costa County car seat Coalition three members of our fire department are trained and certified over 150 seats were either installed or checked in 2008 through appointments made at the stations as well as the public car seat

0:21:04clinics and of course nobody can argue on the ultimate goal of this service in 208 a free pharmaceutical drop off was conducted at station 65 this event netted over 24 gallons of various unwanted medications that were spared from being flushed down the toilet or dumped into the trash that

0:21:26would have led to um would have eventually led to the pollution in our waterways in addition a large quantity of old and used syringes needles and other medical waste um was turned in and recycled properly in keeping with the spirit of protecting the environment and

0:21:43doing our part in helping the city to be more green in 2008 the fire department changed its work schedule from or changed the work schedule for line Personnel uh Personnel to work 48 hours at a time in L the old schedule where we work 24 hours at a time while there was

0:21:58no charge or change in the total hours worked the miles driven by the entire department were reduced by 41% which reduced the carbon emissions by over 77 tons per year in that same Spirit of protecting the environment the elal fire department took uh part in the tree

0:22:16planting last year that was part of the annual Earth Day program three new trees were planted in front of station 71 which was part of the 40 trees that were planted on that day throughout the city this year also additional uh shrubs and Landscape were planted um at the um

0:22:34station 71 on the Avenue another great service is the fire department's dedication to fire safety and public education programs that are conducted throughout the year every member of the fire department plays a key role in participating in such events as a Tri City Safety Fair the Fourth of

0:22:52July celebration and numerous School tours and station tours in addition to the parade that we go to throughout the year the fire department makes contacts with over 3,500 children and adults with various programs offered one of the more popular is our fire safety house this

0:23:10trailer provides realistic simulations that teach various home safety lessons what to do in an earthquake or a large storm as well as how to exit a house in the event of a fire in addition to Fire Safety House icons are very important to children to remember the fire safety messages some

0:23:28of these icons are Sparky the dog Smokey the Bear and of course bubbles the clown and one of our newest members is pluggy the fire hydrant a remote controlled life-sized fire hydrant that rolls around verbally interacting with children teaching fire safety and it can

0:23:44even squirt them if it needs to get their attention there's also a need that's recognized by the fire department for all children to learn the important lessons of fire safety even those with special needs for those ongoing efforts in 2008 Captain Terry Pace who you also

0:24:03know as bubbles the clown received a special recognition award from the West contracosta School District for her work as well as the fire department's commitment to children with special needs the annual toy drive is a program that is always well supported by the

0:24:18city the community and the fire department personnel through this Support over a thousand families in the elero Kensington and Richmond area benefited from these efforts last year the fire department personnel also donate hundreds of hours in sorting packaging and distributing the toys just

0:24:36before Christmas in addition in 2008 fire department personnel also brought toys to the areas in around Paradise California where the summer fires caused so many fires to lose their homes fire department loves a good parade and last year we participated in the Martin Luther King Day parade the

0:24:57high School homecoming Day Parade Kensington parade as well as the Solano stroll to name just a few Every Spring with the opening of the elero Youth Baseball League the fire department also participates in that parade as well as provides the barbecue to assist in the cooking of the hot dogs

0:25:14for the opening Day festivals fire department places a great importance on training and performance Evolutions that test the knowledge and the abilities of the firefighter training is a daily routine for each station from outside training classes company training among engine Crews

0:25:33online training to formal classroom settings at the training Tower as well as Hands-On training in the field the fire department has received or has achieved a higher level of training and has received more certifications than many of the other fire departments in this County due to

0:25:49the intense prerequisites a firefighter paramedic will have over 1500 hours of instruction and field time just to get his paramedic license and all of our firefighters will undergo another thousand hours to meet the requirements of probation as another example to be eligible to promote to a

0:26:06captain's Position will require a minimum of 450 hours of outside training as well as um on the job training all of this is over and above the yearly training that everybody must meet for continuing education and performance Evolutions company training which also

0:26:23includes an array company training uh an array of both inst station and classroom topics sets the foundation for on the job performance in 2008 over 16,000 hours were logged by Personnel that cover safety issues fire Behavior incident command safety and continuing education

0:26:42for both our EMTs and paramedics which require a number of hours to keep their certifications and licenses valid as part of the company training the Fire or the department works with the California firefighter joint Apprentice committee which is a state l L joint training between labor and

0:26:59management this past year we had one member complete the program with over 2,000 hours of training and four more Personnel have been recommended the funds that are generated um for this program go on to pay for additional training in the department such as the paramedic in-house training as well as

0:27:15our online training speaking of online training in 2008 the fire department completed its third year of working with Target safety an online training company that assists us in meeting our injury illness and prevention program reviewing City policies as well as fire related topic

0:27:34every member of the fire department is required to take a minimum of 24 classes adding up to over 50 hours of training per year in fact in 2008 1,700 hours of online training was completed with over 900 courses taken performance Evolutions play a major role in training with real life

0:27:54scenarios that are practiced they're timed they're practiced again to achieve Perfection over 150 Evolutions were completed in 2008 in every aspect of firefighting from pulling hoses to climbing ladders all of this prepares us for when real life hits training provides our Personnel to

0:28:14effectively deal with a threatening fire medical traumas and we maybe even get this to move for us there we go um medical traumas even maneuvering a 3500 PB uh type four or a 4X4 engine up a steep derp Road and even sometimes in the snow number of years ago today even our

0:28:37fire engines have upwards of a dozen onboard computer systems that require our that require individual training just to operate the apparatus as control panels on the fire department are so complicated they can even rattle a commercial pilot an old adage is an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of

0:28:55cure no true are those words than in the fire service one of the main purposes of our fire prevention is to ensure the safety of the public and the residents the engine companies work for me uh the engine companies perform over 500 inspections every year to ensure that

0:29:13businesses schools and apartments are safe and up to dat with thirdparty inspections such as the fire extinguishers and 2008 we had over 80 plan checks were completed as well as 100 construction sites visited to ensure compliance with the fire code the we debate program which you

0:29:32heard a little bit about earlier tonight remains one of our most challenging agendas for prevention and it consumes hundreds of Personnel hours inspecting every property within the elero and Kensington area in addition to the initial 12,000 plus inspections in 2008

0:29:47hundreds of phone calls and numerous reinspection were required along with A continuous public education to maintain the success that the fire department has had with 100% voluntary compliance and almost non-existence fire loss from the Wildland fires in 2008 Wildland management is a yearound

0:30:08job for the fire department with over 79 acres in the hillside Natural Area and the other Parks this past year the fire department employed the services of the California Department of Corrections and calire with the use of hand Crews that were brought in to supplement the

0:30:22ongoing brush clearing program the Delta Camp grooves worked through the fall winter to make the real difference in the vegetation buildup with the ongoing um control burns that we did through the winter and the spring the potential fire loads in these Parks have been greatly

0:30:40reduced to ensure there is water when needed the fire department physically inspects every hydrant in the elero and Kensington area every year there's over 700 of them 10% of all these hydrants were flow tested last year to test the quantity of water that's able to come

0:30:57out of them the elero Kensington cir classes are also both a a training and prevention program in 2007 127 community members participated in the 20-hour program as well as 97 seniors from the high school who were required to attend these classes since the start of what

0:31:19was originally called the neat program over 2600 residents have participated in an effort to be better prepared and to help them El and the Neighbors in an emergency from the extreme duties performed every day the elal fire department strives to be prepared represent what we believe in always

0:31:40reaching for New Heights and to be a respectable reflection on the city thank you very much does anybody have any questions first a round of applause I thank you very much it uh takes a lot of effort and knowhow and training to uh keep everything uh safe for us on a

0:32:15daily basis and I think great overview on what you go through and where our money goes um to help keep our elero safe I did I did have a couple questions here um on the statistics it shows that we have a fire response once every 3 days average what are most of those I don't

0:32:37see three houses I mean one house burning down every 3 days so what what's the majority of those calls for um I mean the structure fires can be obviously I mean a fully involved structure the majority of ones we go to are anything from electrical fires wall sockets that um catch on fire um kitchen

0:32:56fire food on the stove you know pretty much anything while it may not be a catastrophic U you know like burn to the ground we we do try to prevent that um pretty much anything that'll burn inside the house gets categorized as a structure fire you know many many times

0:33:14um and part of this is due to a very quick response um you know we're able to keep it um to a small you know to a small incipient stage you know and again technology plays a part of it when in the past and dealing with electrical fires you know an overheated plug you we

0:33:29deal with a lot of older homes um you know you you go in there yeah you smell something but man you just can't tell where it's at we come back hours later when it's blazing you know some of our technology such as our thermal imaging cameras gives us the ability you know to

0:33:45see fire at a lot smaller stage um you know go in mitigate the problem with very low Dam you know very little damage to the house for it great so the the big fires what do we do two to three a year if if that council member Jones those are some very good questions a lot of people see

0:34:06the the statistic of 124 and they think I don't see black buildings all over town burned out and boarded up um two or three year is a good estimate that's great that you see a large scale fire loss with a with a high magnitude of damage where the people are displaced

0:34:22that's a good average right there good that's that's great to hear thank thank you uh the other question I had is it's it's really a trivia thing because you showed two two pieces of equipment up there how do you how do you number the engines I mean what what's that mean as far as the

0:34:43numbers uh the county Contra Costa County has a numbering system that starts um over in the central County starts with engine one and works its way up uh numbering system has been in place for a number of years so that's why we're not like 7172 2 73 um originally

0:34:59um when this numbering system was put in place um the station over by the high school had been closed so Els Sero only had this um two stations so they got station 71 which is the main station and Station 72 um as far as how we number our engines if it's just the two digits

0:35:18such as engine 71 that's the engine that's the main type one engine that comes out of there such as the truck since it comes out of St 71 we put a t in front of it so you what you would see on the side of it would be t71 which stands for truck 71 um the Power Wagon

0:35:35that's currently at 71 um it's called it's it's classified as a type four engine so it's for um engine 474 Ford being it's a type four engine 71 because it comes out of 71 in the event of U you know storm major fire we bring people in and we put a second engine coming out of

0:35:55that station then we're going to put an a behind it so that if you heard 71a you know that that's a second engine coming out of you know that somewhere in the in the uh works there's already an engine 71 this is a second engine out of that same station I see so whole County you

0:36:12know if you say any engine like engine 64 is Richmond on Bay View and Carlson on the other side of the freeway um from that point it just becomes a matter of memorizing which one's which okay I just kind of thought you took the numbers out of a hat but I guess that's not the way

0:36:27it goes no we're we're stuck with them good and I just want to conclude by saying that um it seems to be more and more we see examples all the time that uh Cooperative em emergency response is really what we're doing these days I mean rarely it sounds like rarely when

0:36:43you go to an emergency you're fighting it yourself even if it's in elero and I think uh it's great that we are shaping the future operations towards that and it reminds us again of of the communication system that's being set up by the two counties that will allow uh a much greater type of

0:37:04cooperation than ever before so anyway thank you for your uh efforts thank you um I had a uh a simple question and partly it's for the benefit of our listening audience I've heard uh you know just over time discussion of things like drier fires and electrical fires are

0:37:24there things that residents can do to prevent those fires that you could suggest um things like drier fire uh bo that's a tough one to say drier fires corre um probably the biggest thing we find there is either vents are not cleaned or people use their washing machines and drying machines as a shelf

0:37:44and lots of things fall behind them you know the socks that you always lose typically they're behind the dryer enough of this builds up enough lint builds up eventually whether it's a gas dryer or it's an electric dryer it's going to light um most of them that we

0:37:59find appear to they have not been cleaned in years you know probably at least once a year homeowners should you know pull their dryer out and vacuum Everything clean from behind them you know even though from the front it looks nice and clean you'll be surprised what

0:38:14you find behind it sometimes like I said the sock you've been looking for and what about the electrical fires is there anything people can electrical fires are basically you know I mean a lot of it comes again because of some of the older homes the older wiring you know if

0:38:28people see most of the times we find it people say yeah the lights have been blinking I didn't know what it was or that outlet hasn't work for you know a couple weeks or a year you know things if you notice something going strange you know lights that don't work anymore

0:38:41or blinking lights and and not you know just one light blinking not like the whole house blinking because we're having a power issue you know those are signs that you're having a problem you know that something is not quite right and I think almost always when we do run

0:38:55into those people have always said yeah you know it's been something a little strange about that thanks very much thank you Mr lman um I I want to go back to the beginning of your slide you talked about the different stations that we have and and certainly the one next

0:39:09door and um station 71 was built in 1964 um you know you've emphasized our training and how much training we do but uh certainly training needs a facility to be conducted within and and can you talk to us about potentially the status of uh this this 45y old structure well I appreciate you asking

0:39:33that question um our joint training system that we have in place now is with the city of Richmond um they have a training facility um that that works good for the joint operations that we have um the public safety uh building as it sits um as you know through some

0:39:50discussions and through some uh weekly report material could use an upgrade our complete replacement um the one thing that has helped us through this you know kind of crippled State having the older building is we've been able to use Station 72 on the hill because it has a

0:40:05training classroom and then we can centrally locate our engine companies there and do classroom specific training um in in the big picture long term uh it would be great to uh upgrade remodel or replace the public safety building and uh bring it to current standards in all

0:40:23areas from building codes to Ada thank you Miss J I just want to thank the fire department for all your great work and um not having had any emergencies and recently coming on to the council I definitely have appreciated learning more about all the all the work that

0:40:39goes into you know making our city safe and I feel much more at ease with every you know bit of information I learn um and I would encourage everybody to try I did the the CT back when it was neat and the coolest thing is to actually put out of fire if you've never done that it's

0:40:58it's really helpful to know what it takes to do that and we got to practice that you get a free hard hat and get to know your community members and um It's a Wonderful um community building exercise and it's you know for long-term safety um quick question was about Green

0:41:15Building Products and just as people are renovating their homes is there a benefit for fire safety to use Green Building kind of you know from insulation to carpeting know there's indoor air quality benefits but if there's if you knew anything about that and a lot of things on the Green

0:41:32Building uh that that stand out front is um of course first and foremost is the solar power um and it is you know it's it's very new in the single family uh residents so the uh State Fire Marshal is working at a lot of different levels to make sure the components that come

0:41:49out are the safest that can be in place in single family dwellings and we're currently doing a review of some things for for training things so when we respond to uh those type of Green Building upgrades um in general anything that fits in the in the newer building

0:42:05codes that is a green component are from Green manufacturing uh 90% of the time is less flammable than the old materials the old carpeting the old vinyls those type of things so as it as a Green Building component helps the environment it also makes your community safer thank

0:42:23you well I want to thank you so much for this very informative and excellent presentation and for including so many photographs that really helped to bring it alive for us and to let you know how much we appreciate the work of the fire department and to Echo the comments of

0:42:38Miss Chang that we see you in the community during these times of unpredicted disaster also at the happy times and the parades and the barbecues and during the training and I just want to say how much we appreciate it and also to thank um our fire chief Lance Maples for his excellent leadership of

0:42:56the department and we're so appreciative and I'm so pleased that so many other folks in the community had a chance to see this overview um of our fire department so thank you thank you before I step away from the mic I have to say one thing um it really means a lot to

0:43:14the Personnel in the fire department and your praise means a lot but none of this would be possible and none of the successes you see on the slides would be possible if it wasn't through the direction and the guidance we receive from you Mr Hannon Mrs pinkos it's a

0:43:31it's a team effort it doesn't all come from the Fireside it's the city council it's City Hall and uh we thank you for the support so thank you thanks again so I'm going to now hand the meeting over to um Redevelopment agency chair Bill Jones to take up the policy

0:43:51matters on item six regarding the Sero theater great thank you um it's been a long I'll preface this by saying uh that this has been a uh this is taking uh I think a lot longer than what we envisioned when we asked for a review of the situation at the Sero theater and interacting with the the

0:44:22present uh operators but I think what we have now is it's come for to decision time and uh I fully expect that we will have some decisions making directions going forward uh after tonight so with that I'd like the uh city clerk to announce the uh I mean uh yes to announce the agenda item and then

0:44:48we'll follow up with the staff report item six Redevelopment agency item resolution of lease obligations with Downey Street reproductions for the Sero theater and purchase of the theater equipment staff is requesting that the council adopt that the Redevelopment

0:45:03agency adopt a resolution which one authorizes Redevelopment agency staff to transition the operation of the Sero theater from Downey Street Productions to a new operator including the acquisition of Downey Street Productions equipment and fixtures at the Sero theater to Aid in that transition number

0:45:19two appropriates up to $100,000 in Redevelopment funds for equipment acquisition and three authorizes staff to take the necessary steps to terminate the Sero theater lease agreement with Downey Street Productions in conjunction with finding a new operator for the Sero

0:45:34theater thank you we have the staff report now good evening chairman Jones and board members I'm Lori trino Redevelopment manager for the agency staff is requesting author authorization to transition operation of the theater from from for the Sero theater from Downey Street Productions to new to a

0:45:55new operator including acquisition of equipment and fixtures from Downey Street to Aid in the transition we are also requesting an appropriation of up to $100,000 for that acquisition Downey State Productions doing business as Speak Easy theaters started operating the theater in

0:46:12November of 2006 the base rent was $10,000 per month along with Revenue sharing while the base rent was higher than the market rate at the time it was an amount that was suggested by Downey Street and agreed to when the lease was originally negoti iated in 2004 the lease called for rent payments

0:46:29immediately upon occupying the building upon opening the business Downey Street did not immediately make rent payments and then did so inconsistently agency staff did not pursue this immediate payment in part because of construction delays that had led to some unexpected costs for Downey

0:46:47Street Downey Street assured staff that rent would be paid and several months had been paid by the sixth month of operation during the summer summer and fall of 2007 Downey Street experienced difficulties gaining completion of the renovation by BBI construction and they

0:47:04worked with the agency to make the final payments to BBI however upon reimbursement for the final invoice from BBI while the rent paid to the agency was then current due to cash flow issues Downey Street was unable to pay any additional rent to the agency or the retention that was owed to

0:47:21BBI the agency continued to work with Downey Street and BBI to address severe flooding problems in the theater oh that's all right go ahead I can't read um let me see if I can read this Downey Street was Downey Street was able to pay a [Laughter] portion what was being referred refer to

0:47:56his lights flash going on and off Downey Street was able to pay a portion of the retention owed to BBI but was unable to ultimately bring um the payments to BBI and the agency current again agency staff encouraged Downey Street to formally request renegotiation

0:48:15of the lease but was assured that they would catch up on rent by April of 2008 in June 2008 when staff was unable to get any information from Downey Street regarding the funds that were owed to the agency and BBI the agency board invoked the section of the Sero theater

0:48:30lease to audit Downey Street's books to understand why a rent was wasn't being paid and whether the lease needed to be restructured shortly thereafter BBI construction sued Downey Street and the agency for the outstanding balance of the Construction contract a matter that

0:48:45Downey Street has yet to resolve the financial review proceeded through 2008 and into the beginning of this year the review of um of Downey Street's books is attached to the staff report and I'm not not going to go through them in detail tonight however based on the review staff was able to to

0:49:02determine that Downey Street had become generally profitable as an operation but had significant debt that the C company was not able to overcome in January of this year the agency put Downey Street into default and a board subcommittee began working with them to restructure

0:49:18the lease terms and provide resources for them to pay off debts I'm not going to review those terms either but they are included in the staff report agency staff was preparing the necessary documents to implement the plan which were to be released to the public on

0:49:33April 20th and considered by the board on May 4th which is tonight's meeting however the morning after the agency's April 6 Clos session staff was notified by email that Downey Street would be closing the Sero and the CEO offered to assist in the transition to a

0:49:50new operator even though Downey Street management had reviewed in t ly agreed to the restructuring of the lease during the prior week agency staff did not see a scenario whereby the agency could provide financial assistance quickly enough to keep the theater open and did

0:50:06not think it was fiscally prudent to provide assistance when it was already known that the theater operation would cease on April 8th the board directed staff to work with Downey Street to transition the theater to a new operator but Downey ma Street management refused

0:50:19to meet with staff to discuss the situation copies of our Communications are included with the staff report on April 20th when presented with this information the agency board directed staff to continue with the previous Direction with the addition of making a written offer to Downey Street for

0:50:35purchase of the equipment and fixtures contingent on resolution of litigation with BBI Downey Street management has agreed to this offer and the staff is working with them on its implementation um that is my staff report if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them and agency Council

0:50:50Karen tan is here as well okay are there any uh questions of staff at this point I have a question yes are representatives from Downey Street prod Productions in attendance tonight I don't think so no I'm an investor okay so I I wouldn't say it's completely accurate to say I'm a

0:51:17representative in the sense of having Authority okay but I do have an investment uh and human interest in the the theater and great we'll be able to take your comments when uh Public public comments are uh brought forward thank you any other I I had a question about um just

0:51:45potential operators um out there and just what has staff found that were you know other operators out there if you could explain we have contacted a few um restaurant and theater operators and um there is some interest but obviously people would need to understand the

0:52:04operation in the theater and at this point we haven't had a chance to review with anybody in detail any of the specifics of that great um following up on U I guess we're board member board member Chang's question um with regards to operations the Fishers do continue to operate it

0:52:26today and it does continue to stay open and and as you said in your staff report it was profitable in 2008 Yes um are they showing any signs of not wanting to operate it or are the Fishers committed to operating going forward until we find a replacement um we have not had extensive

0:52:45communication with the Fishers um they have um they have told us uh by email that they plan to continue operating but we haven't had had any discussions further than that thank you any other questions is I had one um on page five of the staff report under subtitled Downey Street Productions

0:53:10announces closure of the Sero I'd like to clarify uh a sentence is there or part of a sentence it says um the third line towards the end it says uh DSP management had reviewed in tentatively agreed to the financial restructuring the prior week and I think it should be

0:53:31pointed out that it was a possible restructuring that would be recommended and the this agency has never made a decision on that it can't because we're in open uh we need to do it and discuss it and make the determination in an open meeting so this was just a it was Poss these were possibilities

0:53:58that they reviewed and commented on is that correct they had intended they had um they had indicated that they were um willing to accept the the terms that had been discussed with the subcommittee and they understood that it was coming to the board for consideration on that um

0:54:17meeting uh inclosed session on April 6th but that it could not be voted on until this evening good okay and that was clear to them at that time correct I believe so okay thank you I appreciate it Mr Venus can you review again why there was a need to um have that time

0:54:35lag between the proposed re financial restruction and the public hearing to consider it uh under California Redevelopment law any amendment to a DDA a disposition and development agreement which is the document um that was uh entered into to complete this project

0:54:52any amendment of a DDA um requires 15 days um public notice and availability of the documents that are going to be amended um for the public to review so that couldn't have happened until April 20th so it pre prevented us from doing it any more quickly than that thank

0:55:11you okay thank you very much I will now take public comment on the subject Dave orstein hi I'm the uh chairman of friends of the sural theater I would like to really thank the city for going through everything all the Hoops that has jumped through reading through the

0:55:34staff report on the back and forth with the Speak Easy theater I I know it was it was very very hard and I also understand that the reason the council the Redevelopment agency and staff did this is not because this is just some other business it's not a paint store

0:55:48but it's a really important part of the community it's like a ballet or a symphony it's a very important thing that has helped out that part of downtown really come alive is provided a place for people to go and it's really I think um gotten a lot of people in the

0:56:03community excited so I I would just like um before I continue speaking very briefly to ask um anybody in the audience who's come here because they really do care about the continuity of a movie house in um ELO Theo theater to to please stand up and just to show that

0:56:17you're here for that purpose well um you know the reason I was hoping that people would show up today because I know the council is really behind it but if the council is behind the theater because they say it's good for the community because they believe that and the then I think you

0:56:35know the community has to actually show up and and and and and show that too um you know when when when friends got got founded in 2001 the idea was to get the theater in operation to preserve this historic building and really see something happening and then when the

0:56:52theater opened U some members of friends were talking talking about well now we can go away we don't have to exist anymore but we decided to you know stay in business just for this purpose I I think that when you have something like a movie theater or a bookstore or a

0:57:05museum is something that's such an important part of the community there needs to be an ongoing support mechanism and that's something that we intend to do um what what friends would like to urge the city is to continue to make the theater a viable operation either with

0:57:22Speak Easy or with somebody else which I know is your in attention um I I would hope that it doesn't go dark very well I know there's been a certain amount of oh miscommunication and bad communication between um Speak Easy and the theater I hope that kind of bad blood doesn't

0:57:37poison things because I would hate to see the theater go dark um there's been some criticism of the people who run Speak Easy um I would also I would just like to remind people that whenever you go to that movie house you see a movie is in Focus the food's either pretty

0:57:52good or not that bad a lot of people really love it the experience is really nice I've never gone there and didn't have a good time people don't make a lot of noise there it's a very good functional place um it's been pointing out that it is a viable business it was

0:58:06very hard to get it going at first because even though when I walked in there I saw oh look this is a movie house when most people walked in they said oh this is an old warehouse now it's a functioning movie with the new Arrangement the city's working out they'll own the projector so I would

0:58:21like to really thank the Fishers they sunk a lot of love and passion into that theater they came to the city with a formula for a business that has worked whether they continue to operate it or somebody else they'll be using their formula and we owe them um I think a

0:58:35real round of thanks thank you very much for continuing to work on this thank you thank you if we could not turn this into a uh a cheering or a a booing situation I appreciate it um I think everybody appreciates the words that are being spoken here no matter what side of the

0:58:57Ledger but um we need to just keep it down and and keep it going I before we have this next speaker how many speakers do we have on this roughly approx approximately 10 10 okay we're going to keep to the three minutes if you don't mind once you see the red light pop up if you could wrap it up I'd

0:59:19appreciate it that way we can uh uh keep the proceedings going tonight than speaker please Ken bur good evening chairman and members of the uh Council uh my name is Ken burnt [address removed] in elero uh I didn't know which way to stand up uh because I too would would like to have a theater

0:59:56in El Sero but not this theater not at this site and not at the cost they're demanding from us there are a lot of citizens who would like to have uh a theater we sent out 40 requests for proposals and got one back the city should have thought something's a little uh not so favorable

1:00:22outside of elsita with this but they didn't they had only one response and their feeling was hey one response be no competition so let's not do all of the due diligence that we're supposed to do when we're trying to get somebody in this city no credit history no Financial

1:00:42history uh no credit history they should have done that the results of the staff's shortcomings I think are the reason we're all all here tonight regardless of you're for or against um a letter in your packet tonight uh from the CEO and president of dowy Street Productions claims that in

1:01:06April of 2000 they were contacted by the agency regarding the Sero theater the Fishers responded it would be a great fit for Speak Easy however it would be too expensive that's one not next the 19 or in 2001 Speak Easy was contacted again speaking uh they were interested but we did not have the funds

1:01:35to proceed with this project that's two this is not baseball it's not three and out two people that responded to the request for proposal have said no thanks somebody should have been listening then somebody was listening one of the staff members said to Downey

1:01:53Street well what have we paid for it I think that may have been the start of the demise of the Parkway Theater we know that uh Speak Easy was having a tough enough time holding that and now we promise we're going to give it to them for nothing and that never comes

1:02:12through and they're hamstrung and they've closed I guess the Parkway Theater and that that's a shame um excuse me Mr burnt yes I we have if you good thank you my point is um let me just end one thing there are a lot of accusations on both sides and I can't tell the tell who's telling the truth

1:02:33who's not but I would like you five to ask the city manager to to form an audit and investigation of both sides of this thing and if we find that there are employees giving false informations of Hope to people or if we find that the people from Downey are Miss representing

1:02:54what they've said in here then take legal means for them and give a appropriate uh chasti to the employee thank you thank you I I just want to make a comment that um any perceived shortcomings of the staff are not shortcomings of the staff they are all decisions that were made by this

1:03:16Redevelopment agency in response to a vision this community had and I just want to voice my support for the staff who has worked in service of that Vision next Michael beer hi my name is Michael beer I live in Richmond but actually uh within walking distance of Elser of course it's

1:03:43just on the other side of San Pablo and um the last time I was in this um room was 2 weeks ago when I was attending uh the search uh drip on Saturday um which was um in the service of both the city of elero and Richmond and we've spoken this evening about the need for

1:04:03cooperation and uh also I'm bringing this up to indicate my interest in Civic mindedness which is part of who I am and this leads directly into the the fact of having a theater as you seem to all agree it's really an amenity uh in the community I'm myself with my master's

1:04:25degree in film uh had long thought that that's what was needed in this Corridor and that's what was missing between The Oaks in Albany and something way on the hill over there uh and Hilltop there was no theater and I could see that there would be a time when people would come

1:04:42out to theaters again because it's quite a social experience and then this particular theater is unique in that it that it that it's a more family Atmos has a more more family atmosphere than any other theater that I've ever been to so um I'm I'm going to encourage you to

1:04:59never let it go dark because that would certainly once that happens people the business that's been gradually gradually building will completely stop and people will forget about it also I wanted to point out that that whole block is going through a revitalization and that uh 33

1:05:16revolutions every time I go in there there are more people than ever before and faces I've never seen before plus there are the other s along there this is this is this is could be the beginning of something really important so I want to having having lived in London for a while and knowing that the

1:05:33way the government there subsidizes the Arts you know the the Symphonies and the ballets and and such uh it's been said before this is a real positive amenity for the community and because of the economic situation now it would be very difficult to to start something new so

1:05:54whatever is is kept up should be something in the same line and I truly appreciate the selection of films that are there it like this like the place next door it's eclectic like the electrics uh eclectic I can't even say it I'm a little nervous um but uh it draws in other words very many for many

1:06:15very many communities and that's what I think you want in this situation because I think it'll be a star in this community thank you appreciate it just iica Jones good evening um this is my first time speaking as the public at any meeting like this I've been on the other

1:06:37side a few times and this is much more refreshing um but I would just like to briefly say that we moved to elero 3 years ago we began renting here because it was in between my husband and myself uh jobs and we weren't really sure where we wanted to end up and when we found

1:06:52out that the Sero was opening with the parkway management we were beside ourselves we took our daughter there for baby Brigade in Oakland when we lived there at 7 days old for almost an entire year and um now that we have two girls we can't go as much um but I I hope it's

1:07:08not a done deal that that it the management can't be worked with and I don't know the details and I won't try to speak to that but we purchased a home two months ago in El Sero we finally decided to settle down here and it was a hard decision and this is one of the big

1:07:23things that we are able to get our friends from other cities to come and spend their money in elero and it's hard now that the parkway is gone it's a bragging right that this is the only place like this in this area the only place that has baby bade and um a great place to go and have a drink and

1:07:40watch a movie so I really hope that the the council finds a way to make this work and I understand that staff is probably worked very hard on this and none of this is easy and everything costs money but um I'm sure I SP speak for many new homeowners in this area

1:07:55that this is very important to us thank you thank you an Layman first I just want to say I think the dog park in Bruce's honor is a wonderful idea um and I also would would like to say that if staff or council members before May 19th have positions on any of the ballot measures that would

1:08:22help Els Sero it'd be really great to hear about them because as you probably all know everyone's all over the map on these ballot measures and um it'd be nice to know what's going to help us okay the theater um I want to say that I think that we should really be proud of what we've

1:08:41accomplished I mean on almost every measure except the bottom line the theater has been a great great success it's completely put us on the map it's revitalized that whole economic area of elero it's an incredibly beautiful historical building that we were capable

1:09:01of building and it's as is evident by everyone here tonight it's built the community that we wanted it to build so I really think that there's a lot of success here obviously on a business level um there's been not as much success and the friends has always taken

1:09:21the position often very reluct L to never interfere at all with the business decisions of The Operators um we've left that to them we're not privy to the financials and we now need to leave to you our elected officials the very difficult decision that you're going to have to make

1:09:40tonight that's what we elect you for um what we do want to see is the continue operations of this theater um other people have already spoken to this um it is it is something of a concern if you have have an ongoing um business how you're going to find something to

1:09:57replace that um it it's a real unknown and how you're going to be able to measure that and keep something going while you're looking um is a major concern we don't want to lose the momentum that we have now so when you take that all into consideration and making your decision I hope you really

1:10:19sort of look at um how that is going to be possible and maybe leave open whatever doors you need to leave open for a new RFP or whatever it is going to be um so maybe even the current um people could rebid on something that you put out there the one thing I would like

1:10:39to say that I think the city sort of fell down on the job on is as a community we had 12 days that we were supposed to have every year that were to be put on by the city of elero and I think we really never took advantage of that um to my knowledge there's only

1:10:56been one or two of those days ever used in the two years that it's been ongoing and that's an opportunity where we could really try something different to bring people from the community who might not have already seen the movie theater there and to try something that might

1:11:11not have been tried before I think Park and wreck and the Arts and cultur Community would would probably be wonderful people to come and bring their expertise to what those 12 days and that's what the current operations you might negotiate something different next

1:11:26time but I think as coming from a community point of view I think we could do a lot more to hear from the community what those 12 days might have been and how we could really encourage people maybe seniors maybe high school students that maybe not have as ready access to

1:11:43um the theater to to take advantage of that so thank you good luck appreciate it Peter lobal and pet lobal I I certainly agree with the friends of the theater that it would be very sad to have the theater boarded up but uh what we need to discuss is uh what is the exposure of the

1:12:13city with regard to Downy streets debts I see no agreement by Downy Street to give up the lease I just see them Readiness to sell their equipment for 100,000 dollars and sit there and keep the theater going which a lot of people here would would like to happen but you

1:12:30obviously have to have to look at where where we're heading and what it all means uh coming from Eastern Europe by the way I have to have a comment I'm not impressed At All by 100 people showing up and and presenting on line I'm used to 99.8% of the people voting voting the

1:12:47party line the fact is that the theater is popular about for in the last uh survey that was had years ago about 40% of elans were ready to contribute taxes towards the theater that means that there's 60% who didn't and there's uh 23,450 cens who are not here and who

1:13:11didn't get up many of those may be like the theater too but they need to be considered also so uh and I think what gets me angry is maybe you guys should see some Italian movies from melini's time and find out about black shirts excuse me use a white shirt Mr lual if you could

1:13:32present your ideas to us I appreciate it if you like to talk to the if you like to talk to him you can do it on your own time 20 seconds thank you for interruptions I'm mainly shocked by the way I'm glad to hear Sandy poter say that that the council accepts the

1:13:48responsibility don't don't hit on staff what mainly shocks me is I knew about the BBI mechanics lean over a year ago I spoke about it here I wrote about it and now we find out that it is still an issue and I assume the $100,000 is sort of an attempt to get get that settled I'd like

1:14:08some more openness on uh with with regard to the issue then comes the issue of of the non-payment the city steps in to pay taxes certainly the city manager in an emergency situation has the right to pay $25,000 a year somebody but it should be it should be reported to the public it

1:14:25was not reported to the public it does not help in this in this situation to do things in an underhanded way you need to look at it openly so I I'd say let's do everything to keep a theater uh there are people here CH from the parkway there's lots of ideas on how to make it

1:14:40a little bit more profitable where it should be tweaked but it will not be done in a situation like this with 3 minute limits on ideas I I could go on for 20 minutes with constructive ideas but obviously say this is not the time I assume there'll be many more meetings

1:14:57and I mainly mainly appeal to you for more openness too much was hidden and that's that's where the problems arose all this should have been out in the open over a year ago and we could have had it settled and the Fishers would maybe happily be operating profitably no

1:15:12thank you thank you Jim wri hi my name is Jim Wright I live at [address removed] in El Sero and I'm here to express my unconditional support for Sero theater I've been behind it since it first came around I know that we have this issue of a tax supported facility I know there's some controversy

1:15:44there but if I look around me at what's going on in the federal government to the state government and look at all of the subsidized things that are happening in federal government and look at all the subsidized private corporations that are multi-billion dollar corporations

1:15:56which I have no particular interest in supporting financially and I turn around and look at Sero Theater which I think is providing a very essential important and welcome service then my tax dollars are much better spent whatever they are supporting this Rito theater than they

1:16:10are to support these large corporations that were bailing out so that's not really placing a judgment on whether or not bailing out is a good thing but if you look at it relatively speaking I think this is a really wonderful thing to bail out as opposed to all of the tax

1:16:23dollars that are going to bail out corporations that really are are not really in my best interest to support um I want to command the city on taking the opportunity to launch this theater I think we knew it was a risky proposition when we went into it we went into with

1:16:35the best of assumptions and a lot of us agreed with that um and it turns out that in some ways it has really benefited the community and there are people who say well it's my tax money I don't like my tax money being spent this way but fundamentally it was a joint

1:16:48decision a majority decision by the city council and I think you see a lot of public support for this idea so I'd like you to continue to invest in this vision of elero I think we know that the vision of elero as strip malls and auto dealerships is dead I don't think we're

1:17:04going to see an economic Resurgence so I think we have to invest in the community where it exists which is the F corner of San Pablo and all of the spin-off businesses that I think are going to start to pop up and if we end up subsidizing worthwhile businesses like

1:17:17this then I personally have no problem with it at all thank you very much thank you next speaker please Tran um good evening um I live in elero and um I'm unfamiliar with the financial history of the the theater but I would like to speak towards um the more positive

1:17:46emotional side of of what I my family and I have um had with the Elser theater um my husband and I have lived in elsera for the past 5 Years and we're proud to be part of this community which supports independent businesses like the ones represented on Central and San Pablo um

1:18:0733 revolutions the bigr studio um the barber shop and of course elrio Speak Easy um I've seen how the theater has increased foot traffic on this block um it's increased visibility for the businesses and I've experienced firsthand because being in the yoga studio the classes have become more

1:18:32crowded um and I think it's all positive um and I hate to see um the the closing of the the theater affecting um other businesses um frankly the theater and the farmers market in elero are the things that I brag about um I what I love about ELO um my family and I are loyal patrons

1:18:58of the theater is unique to ELO it's Unique to the Bay Area and I think that transitioning another operator into the space May POS possibly solve the short-term cash flow but in this economy I doesn't necessarily guarantee its longevity um down street Productions has a history and a

1:19:24reputation that was built at Oakland Parkway that will continue to attract patrons um from all over the Bay Area especially now that the parkway is closed um you in the past couple weeks I've noticed people from Oakland coming to ELO theater it's not just um ELO

1:19:41residents coming um I sincerely hope that the council can work and find some amenable ways to uh keep Downy Street Productions as the current operator and help it become a viable asset to the city um I'm really proud of a theater and I I think it's a really important part of

1:20:03the community thank you thank you Todd price um my name my name is Todd price and I live at [address removed] Els serito and I want to speak in favor of finding a way to keep the theater um a couple years ago I read an item in USA Today of they occasionally have a list of 10 places to visit

1:20:41Etc one of them was the San Marco theater in Jacksonville Florida and since that was where I grew up I paid a visit to there one evening and went to a movie and it was seats separated by tables and I thought it was very Charming well I think this place could fit in something like that you can go

1:21:01into the theater you can get a salad you don't have to worry about popcorn or raisinets but you get a delightful Sal and the charm in the place is highly unusual if you could have on that block um play land not at the beach um 99 revolutions and the ELO theater I think

1:21:22that block would be it just has a lot of charm in it and as a taxpayer I'm glad to see my taxes go towards helping support the theater um I also want to commend because I've heard some criticism of the lady who was from the agency um I she sounded very responsible

1:21:44to me if a little bit harsh and um I frankly don't know what else to say except that in this day when to use a far-reaching analogy we're helping out homeowners who are default because of the credit crunch Etc I think the elero theater comes in a similar kind of environment as that

1:22:06where they add a lot to the city and um they add a lot of charm to it and that's all thank you thank you hre [Music] Norris good evening my name is hre Norris and um I have the pleasure of having been one of the early non-family investors in the parkway uh long before the Sero uh

1:22:38was a twinkle in anyone's eye uh I made a $60,000 investment because at that time I had fancied myself a film distributor and was Distributing a film called follow me home and it made sense to me at the moment at least to have a a place to exhibit it so I invested in the

1:22:57theater plus you know who wouldn't want to have popcorn and beer while watching a movie uh not in your living room big screen so it it all made sense to me I happen to be a lawyer and perhaps eccentric um I'm also one of the investors in Cafe Gratitude which is a

1:23:15raw food restaurant chain in the area and I really obviously like investing in things that are little off the beaten path but I think uh an idea whose time is going to come around in the future I would love to see the serito continue to exist I would even more love to see it

1:23:34continue to exist under the current management uh just because I have a lot of investment and and faith in their ability to work with whatever the situation is to to make it happen the economy I mean there there are lots of things that we can all say about what

1:23:50has happened but uh one of my particular interests is to be to use the theaters and I'm still pulling for the parkway Revival uh as a platform to begin to uh do uh healthy water get the plastic out of the environment get it away from the oceans and begin to model the kinds of

1:24:13responsible ways that we as Citizens can can function if we are given an opportunity in settings that are social so uh I'm here to to just stand for the future of El I live in San Francisco by the way so I have to come across the bridge to go to either the parkway or the Sero and I do that

1:24:36regularly because I love actually coming to the Sero it's a beautiful facility and parking is much easier than than other places so I I hope you will give it your deepest consideration and um uh and uh I hope I hope it works out thank you thank you Martha Davis Hi council members thank you very

1:25:11much I didn't realize I'd be called so quickly I went to the old city council CH Chambers instead um I want to say that I've been a resident of Els Sero for 13 years I'm a homeowner I attended the Parkway Theater myself with my newborn daughter as a single mom for quite a few years during

1:25:29their baby grade operations I myself have worked in a movie theater that is on the National Historic registry in Bar Harbor Maine and I have also worked with another movie theater in Bar Harbor main that does a similar Els Sero style that is pizza and food delivered to you at um

1:25:47the table and they have expanded not decreased their patronage the few things I want to talk to you about the elero theater is I know personally the management of the Speak Easy both for the Parkway and the ELO theater um both Kyle and will on a personal first name

1:26:06basis as they are supporters of numerous um public fundraisers including the Leukemia Lymphoma Foundation of which I am a diagnosed member of the community with leukemia and they have been happy to have my participation at their movie theater as well as offer a diversity of films

1:26:26for both the politically inclined as well as the family inclined I think this is an expanding opportunity for our community and like many others who've spoken before me I was listening to the radio while trying to get here to the right City chambers that this is an opportunity for

1:26:44our community to build and further expand where many communities are seeing a decline and if you want history on the movie theaters I worked in in Bar Harbor main one is the Criterion theater that was opened during the 1920s with the seating capacity of 940 and they have offered a number of

1:27:04public fundraisers as well as Live Events and then the other one is called real Pizza in Bar Harbor main that offers a similar venue they recently opened with two screens rather than one screen the only regret I have for the current way the Sero is being run is

1:27:19that I wish that the first movie of the night was also all ages I know they have the weekend that's all ages but I would request that after 900 p.m. then it's grown-ups only but I find nothing but Delight in both the management who I've met with personally regarding fundraising

1:27:37possibilities including not just the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation but other organizations which I belong to and I want to see advocacy for our community for such an enlightened momentum that brings numerous people here as you here from across the bay from Oakland I have friends frequently

1:27:55who come from Oakland and even further San Leandro to come to the movies here in the elero theater we almost always buy the concessions but everybody knows the concessions are the majority of any movie theater's income anyone who's in the business that is if you go to a

1:28:12regular movie theater whatever you pay $7 to $9 $10 13 if it's in 3D um that the majority of the money that comes in is from concession and I realize that there may be hard times falling on our community but I have voted repeatedly in favor of using tax dollars for the Sero theater because

1:28:32it's now in my community I was delighted when they opened a second theater here I was greatly saddened when they closed the parkway excuse me that if you could uh wrap it up your time is I will certainly wrap it up thank you I I didn't realize I taken my three minutes

1:28:48so I apologize for taking as long taken but it realiz it took me as a disabled person much longer to get to the old city council chambers I'm also dis both hands so I'm glad you made thank you very much and I'm glad I made it here tonight good thank you Arin Robbins I live at [address removed] and have

1:29:14for 26 years I'm also a member of the art and culture commission and of course I'm here to support uh the continuing of the Sero theater but I wanted to mention a couple of things that had popped in and out of my mind throughout the whole course of of this and the last few nights when I've

1:29:33been reading about the circumstances um I know that our problem does not lie in the concept and our problem does not lie in the intentions of all the parties I think that everybody is working worked incredibly hard to try to make this thing work and we have as a community accomplished a

1:29:58tremendous lot when you think of renovation of an old building working together with Architects etc etc bringing together a community group that formed for this purpose uh a company that is fairly new in it but has been having some success in Oakland and our city government and our city offices

1:30:23those are a lot of disperate groups and we've managed to get some wonderful things accomplished what I'd like to see us think about as we go forward and try to come up with a solution for the present circumstances is that given that all parties had the best of intentions it's possible in my mind at

1:30:47least that we could utilize the skill set that the Downey Street production people offer and possibly give them some relief from their extreme Financial duress which of course we did not cause but we might be in a position if they end up being one of the best options for running the Sero as we like

1:31:17it run that perhaps we could employ them and take over the management of the financial aspects of it and some of the other issues that haven't been going as well because their PL their their organization of how the place should be put together has been lovely anyway it's

1:31:43it's a concept that that I wanted to make sure was thrown out there to consider as well and there probably are half a dozen other other things that might overlap that idea with other people um and perhaps our city can can have a small committee that is in charge

1:32:03of management that's another possibility these are all ideas and I know they get very muddy but I wanted to at least bring them up so that you could consider them in the future thank you thank you Sarah Baxter even I came this evening um as a resident of el Sero I've been a

1:32:30long time resident of this area I grew up here I went to Port Junior High I went to Elso high school and I chose to purchase a home in El Sero my family lives nearby and I love this community um I chose to be a small investor my husband and I in the Sero theater we contributed a small token

1:32:53$100 and we purchased we were able to get a little name plaque and we love to sit in our seats we go every time that when we get to go we go to sit in our little seats right there and we invite our friends to come we don't go as much anymore because we have two small children but the

1:33:11street of theater means a lot to us um my parents are babysitting are two small children right now so we can be here this evening to bring forth this and um the reason why I came to speak is because I watched that Ser theater go up and my son has never been in there but I

1:33:30would love to take him he's not old enough to sit through a whole movie um so I just wanted to come as perhaps many other people are in this room as a longtime resident of elero that hopefully that we can make this work and um thank you for your time thank you next speaker please Peter

1:33:55prto I just want to my name is Peter prto I'm one of the lead organizers uh out of Oakland I'm a resident of Oakland actually and for the revitalization of the Parkway Theater I wanted to say thank you to all of you and to everyone here we we found out in our neighborhood

1:34:12uh I found out a day the day of I think um and so it was it was a surprise I think the thing that's most often overlooked um this is something that I've realized in the last 40 days since the theater's closed is that this is a lot like what feels um similar to a

1:34:30death in the family and the emotions that come out of a situation like this uh seem to be very similar too you have a lot of angry people and a lot of frustrated people and a lot of people that that have a lot of good ideas but don't know where to share them and while

1:34:46I I deeply respect the need for efficiency especially in meetings like these um um with all due respect council member you might want to get a trap door because that might work more easily than a red light uh so it does look like you've got your hand on a lever down

1:35:02there um so I I would like to come to this council with Solutions in the interest of time I'll just say that on behalf of Oakland uh you have our support we have found examples uh and people around the country with the use of the internet that are willing to help

1:35:19us and that's how we'll re open the theater we can't do it without help and we consider you neighbors what happens to you happens to us and we hope that you uh that you keep that in mind in the days and weeks to come that simply because this is something that's

1:35:35happening to your residents and here in front of your Council that um it doesn't mean you can't turn to us for help because we're willing to give it thank you thank you leer Oaks uh thank you thank you for letting me speak this evening I think that it's uh really great and wonderful that the

1:35:56city council has supported this project the Sero theater and very important is and I don't know if it's been mentioned that's one of the reasons I want to speak and I can't remember I've listened everything and lose track but the restoration the the art deco the artwork

1:36:14in there I mean this was so important it's so important to our community I don't live in elero I live in Richmond I live in richment anex I cross the street and I'm INR I'm in El cero I'm patronizing El cero I I go to the cero theater I go to 33 re revolutions I go

1:36:31to the uh um Pastime hardware and I mean I put more money in a part Pastime Hardware than probably any business in the community um it's it's important to me to see the kind of revitalization that the Sero theater has brought there's uh a lot going on in in Elo it's really exciting it's wonderful

1:36:54no one's mentioned the uh Stockton stroll the Stockton stroll happens every two months and on Stockton Street most people say Stockton Street what's that they don't know where Stockton Street is but people are becoming aware of Stockton Street and the Stockton Street

1:37:09Art stroll it's a two by the way there's going to be an opening this Friday night at the uh and the stock and stroll will be taking place and please come to the Glenn framing where I part of that show um that's beside the point um but I do want to mention uh also that this is too

1:37:26big to fail uh the Sero theater is really really important to this community it's really important it's much more important as other people have spoken about than some of the institutions that our federal government is is supporting and saving we need to save and RI and keep the Sero theater

1:37:49um that's all I have have to say thank you very much thank you no other speaker slips chair John okay is there anybody else that would like to speak before we close the public session okay and could I ask you once you're done speaking to make a speaker slip out so we keep the records straight

1:38:08thank you my name is Leah rude and I live in Elo and um it's been sort of been said but I just wanted to make the point that the Sero as it is now is unique the experience is unique and I think that's one of the things that brings people to that theater there's a lot of movie

1:38:28theaters in the East Bay and people are going to come from different places not just to see a movie but for the experience and it's going to be uh very disappointing if we end up with a generic movie theater that doesn't have that unique and lovely experience so

1:38:48that was just my comment thanks thank thank you appreciate it anyone else before we close the proceedings all right bring it back here to the agency and uh I'm looking for uh some sort of motion before we can discuss um I'll make a motion if I may um I move a uh resolution of Els

1:39:14Redevelopment agency authorizing transition of oper operations of the Ser theater um that's actually not the motion I would like to make may start over a resolution of the ELO Redevelopment agency authorizing uh acquisition of the Downey Street equipment for up to $100,000 in

1:39:35the necessary steps necessary steps to to uh explore no I'm making a new motion what's this sorry oh sorry oh no I'm I'm I can read thank you I didn't write it down as the problem um I'd like to make a resolution essentially uh authorizing us to do go forward with the acquisition

1:40:08of the dowy streets equipment for up to $100,000 at this time that's it yes that's it okay we have a motion is there a second I'll second that motion it's been moved in second to appropriate uh up to $100,000 of Redevelopment funds for equipment acquisition open for discussion

1:40:31please may I um I first I want to start with thanking everyone for coming tonight this is just a wonderful display to see our seats full for um for this public discussion um so I want to thank everyone for that um I also want to acknowledge the numerous emails that

1:40:49we've received in in the last uh month um and so I want to acknowledge that as well um with that said I want to make sure that everyone understands what I've heard and over through the emails and through the testimony tonight uh we had 16 speakers tonight and I think we have

1:41:07over had over 20 emails um only Ms Norris Miss Davis Miss tram and Miss Robbins asked for us to keep dsb dowy Street Productions in operations everyone else has has asked us to do exactly what we want to do which is recognize that the theater is a tremendous asset to the block U

1:41:29creating a a synergistic uh surrounding with the businesses synergist Synergy with the surrounding businesses a catalyst for attracting and retaining businesses providing entertainment and dining oper opportunities in elero uh making elero a destination we're using an existent

1:41:46vacant blighted building that has historic significance making the theater into an economic development and Architectural amenity creating a high Vis highly visible L local Landmark easily identifiable with the city's name and providing an opportunity for community and placemaking so the

1:42:04Redevelopment agency's original project of of uh capturing all of those very non-tangible assets I mean that yes there's there's additional tax revenue yes there's additional um other income to the city but it was really a ser of non-tangible assets that the theater

1:42:23represented and and in that way I agree with all the testimony tonight it's been a success to that degree um I did serve on the subcommittee and I will say that uh Miss Robbins your recommendation of exploring with the The Operators an alternate some alternate uh ways of working out there

1:42:44uh Mr lual has more than 20 minutes of suggestions and Mr pra has similar requ requested more time to to propose that those three testimonies are the are the basis for my uh my uh motion tonight is to is to go forward with the um acquisition of the equipment so that the

1:43:05city owns the structure plus all of the fixtures and uh operating equipment inside um but potentially let the community understand that uh we've been trying to communicate with the operators for the last two months three months even we've been trying to come up with

1:43:25Alternatives and solutions and uh it's been a one-sided communication and and I hope that you've the the documents in the the record show that it was a one-sided communication uh so despite um my belief that that more time will not necessarily uh help us reach a a

1:43:49workable solution with down count Street Productions I did make my motion so that that is something we can consider uh so that we can uh provide that opportunity to to consider an Alternatives with dowy Street Productions um I enjoyed working with Katherine uh tremendously on the subcommittee and

1:44:10actually had looked forward to what I thought was going to be a su successful renegotiation of our agreement and was um dismayed by the communications that uh that Kyle put forward that essentially brought us to this point tonight so um W with that I I will let

1:44:31my motion stand okay okay um it's un having made that motion it's not clear to me that that's the only motion we would make tonight no we make any number be a a starting point so I'm going to deal with it um at that level by starting out uh with this part of it

1:44:55and I agree first of all I want to agree with the comments that were just made I was also a member of the subcommittee although my father died and I um had to leave town um for the sort of the the end of the subcommittee um the um I we I think we tried as hard as we

1:45:15could to make this work and the reason that we tried to make work was for the very reason that was stated by so many audience members that it really represents what we want ELO to be and it's a destination and um that you know it it serves a very public purpose in

1:45:36that regard and um so we want to do everything that we can to retain that um entity in our community and um so we worked really really hard to make that happen as a subcommittee and with the support of the other members of the council I might add um and in fact

1:45:59Katherine I thought worked very well with us um to for for that towards that same goal so I was pretty shocked when we got the email that said it's not you know it's not going to happen um from Kyle so um having said that I still and I I think the other members of the council

1:46:21from what we said previously still want to retain a theater at that location um and that might mean it's a different operator but we still want to have that uh amenity in our city because it has been a great service to our community so um I'm going to sort of as

1:46:41as since you you made the motion that way I'm just going to break it down and talk about this Motion in detail now and um I think uh in in order um for us to have real complete control of what goes on there it really will be useful to have complete control of all of the

1:47:00assets of the theater um and um so that that's the reason I support acquiring the uh equipment uh in the theater um what's left a little vague by um this statement is how the the $100,000 that we would uh appropriate would be used so I'm going to ask um council member Lyman if

1:47:27you intended for that money to be used to um pay off BBI I I believe I'm supportive of the last whereas Clause prior to the now therefore I will read it whereas the agency staff have provided Downy Street Productions with a written offer to purchase its Sero theater equipment contingent on board

1:47:46approval and on Downey streets Productions obtaining a dismissal uh dismissal of the agency and the City from litigation with BBI construction uh Downey Street contractor to which the agency and the city are parties so indeed I believe that this um purchase of the equipment would should

1:48:06have a focused goal of trying to get that dismissal okay thank you um I think that's actually very important because if we're going to um proceed in whatever direction we proceed uh assuming that we want to retain operation you know we want this the theater to continue

1:48:25operating I think that's really quite essential um so I just want to bring out that point um and say that that that's why I support it so I'll stop speaking at this time well I just wanted to kind of start from the beginning for me which is that I was a planning commissioner when we

1:48:44first discovered the empty warehouse and was part of the effort to have this project um to have it occur to have that building restored to Historic structure and I am in absolute agreement with you that the opening of the theater was a joyous event and the operations of the

1:49:02theater has been a tremendous asset to the community and for me personally in my public service the construction of this building and of that theater have been my work for this community so it's a great disappointment that we find ourselves here tonight uh having this

1:49:19discussion I did want to acknowledge dowy Street productions for their hard work in the partnership that was formed between the Redevelopment agency and Downey Street and the community we built a wonderful theater and we operated it in a very effective way in this great

1:49:36community and it has been an amenity and it has revitalized the block and it's done many things that um folks here have spoken about but we've also faced a lot of challenges along the way and I can say say that there was one group or one person who was all right or who was all

1:49:54wrong but it is clear that Downey Street production has not held up their end of their commitments and furthermore that the communications have broken down and that the partnership is failing and nothing demonstrates this more than the fact that while we were working in

1:50:12negotiations to restructure their loan which really could have been thought of as a subsidy and in fact tremendous amount of work went in as an effort to relieve debt and to um restore Financial viability to Downey Street Productions that was a central theme of the

1:50:31restructuring negotiations that in the middle of those negotiation on the verge of announcement that we would get um completely surprised with the notice that they plan to shut their doors a week earlier and as the gentleman from Oakland indicated we were also caught by

1:50:48surprise while at the time of auditing books and working very hard to understand the financial viability to learn uh through the Press without any advanced notice about the closing of the Parkway in Oakland so I just wanted to be clear about um the difficulties that

1:51:04we have encountered and I also want to be clear that it is not our intent for the theater to go dark it is only our intentions to find a smooth transition um to a viable long-term operator and for that that reason I feel that the motion um needs to include the first

1:51:24clause which is in the agenda item which re directs Redevelopment agency staff to transition operator operations of the theater to a new operator um and the reason I say that is because Downey Street Productions has not attended any of the meetings the public meetings or

1:51:44or or come here to speak to us nor have they since announcing that they intended to to close given the Redevelopment agency any Assurance of their intent to operate this theater long term so I think it's vitally important tonight that we move forward and open this up to

1:52:02a process and I will be the first to say that I would welcome the opportunity for them to come forward as one of the competitors in this effort um to put forward a revised plan perhaps with the new restructuring but that we and the subcommittee has certainly um exhausted all of our

1:52:22possibilities um and in closing I just want to say that it is our job to ensure investment of our community's taxpayers money in a way that is acceptable level of risk and it's for that reason and for the public Trust of this investment that I would support um the two elements of

1:52:41the agenda item okay before I ask uh agency member Chang her comments um there was a proposal to add to the resolution and I wonder if the maker of the resolution and the second are agreeable or do we want to take that up separately later um I I recognize we have a fiscal

1:53:07responsibility which is in part why um we are here tonight and and I'm definitely seriously considering the amendment but at this time I would prefer not to uh accept the amendment to this current motion address this motion and then talk about that as a separate

1:53:22motion okay we'll then proceed with just consideration of the uh of the motion at hand I just wanted to thank everyone for coming tonight and really I think this theater has been a Nexus for community building and you know we're we meet each other at the theater and um it's a

1:53:42really important draw for our community and you know all of everything echoing what what was said from bragging rights to you know just the joy of seeing um our Avenue revitalized um has been worth every dollar put into the theater in my belief um having grown up in elero it's

1:54:02always been you know kind of a chip on my shoulder that all my friends who live in Berkeley and San Francisco have all these Great Destinations but to have this unique theater um giving what it does back to the community has been um you know has been wonderful um having

1:54:20said that I think it's it's really disappointing that the The Operators have not been you know there's definitely been some um turbulence in in working with them and I'm really conflicted and what I was listening for from the community was absolutely the direction on continuing to work with

1:54:42dowy Street Productions because in a in a huge way they have given us the authenticity of community run um entity and creativity Innovation and um have you know have given that to us and I think that's you know both reflective of what our community is and wants to be and um their reputation is

1:55:08huge and um and I appreciate council member or agency member lyman's uh motion to just consider this you know the the 100,000 for the purchase of the equipment because I think that's one of the big things I agree we have to keep it open it's essential and I don't think

1:55:24there's any doubt that everybody agrees with that but you know the big question is uh continuing with Downey Street Productions or not um and so I'm um with that I you know I'll I support the motion and um will reserve my comments for the other components as we

1:55:45continue thank you um I appreciate the uh comments before this I would like to uh uh give you my comments and it probably carries over to any maybe subsequent uh resolutions or or motions that will be made and I just wanted to go over that um when we get into Redevelopment and Redevelopment

1:56:11issues and and projects in there situations happen and sometimes they're as expected and and and even better in CA some cases and other times they don't work out quite the way you want it and especially in my uh observations of Redevelopment agencies especially when you get into uh

1:56:34businesses promoting businesses uh recruiting businesses into the in into the area the Redevelopment areas um the risk of things not going the quite the way you want uh raises up a little bit uh it's much easier to uh improve a road and beautify an area than it is to um

1:56:57get a business going where the open market and the competitive market uh didn't want to uh go and so uh if you look at other cities some of our cities that are around us here um they've gone through these steps uh San Pablo Berkeley Richmond um they've been through the ups and downs and I think

1:57:20what determines ultimately the success of a Redevelopment uh area is how do we handle the situations that don't quite work out the way we want and how do we go forward to make it a success and um as an example and I I really like the city of San Pablo I'm not picking on them but they tried uh

1:57:43with El portel they tried many Concepts many Concepts and then they finally decided that housing was the best way to go on that site in the Redevelopment and it's turned out well and so um again uh they tried and tried and Tred different concepts but they kept going forward

1:58:00they kept uh making some moves and I and I think in that case uh they finally achieve success so I think that is ultimately how you judge a Redevelopment uh area and project small businesses have been the background of elero and the elero economy always has been up up up to

1:58:23today we depend on it the last two years we've seen uh Corporate America fail us we have seen uh National and international some national and international financial institutions mismanage our money and this has resulted in loss of faith and and Trust of the American

1:58:46people therefore it is we are fortunate that we have our small businesses that have come through for us over and over again and kept our economy going those are the ones in in in our times that are tough they're they're holding things together economically and commercially

1:59:06in town and just a sample and I know I know I'm going to this isn't a complete list and I just want to have an example it's it's businesses like oliveo Plumbing Nations food uh hamburgers Honda Pastime JV Liquors Mechanics Bank uh the Glenn fat apples elero lighting and the list can

1:59:29go on and on of businesses that have been in elero have supported elero we've supported them and they keep they have kept us on track the so it would make sense that elero would support a small business in our Redevelopment area uh one of the things that the that our

1:59:54small businesses have in common in my opinion um and I would bet well I wouldn't bet the family form but I I I would go a long way is to say that they have all had hard times they have all had it it wasn't easy to start up they've had to make decisions there's been times I bet that those owners and

2:00:15Founders stayed up at night wondering how the payroll was going to be made or how the how they were going to get the uh the the next order of goods in the store and how they were going to pay them uh there's been downtimes they've had to make decisions they've had to

2:00:31turn for help they've had help along the way and they in turn have helped PE other people and this goes on it's not easy to run a business I I know of two businesses in town long time that as long as they have been in business and as successful as they've been they had

2:00:51to make hard decisions on how to go forward in the future so it doesn't matter if you're in business two years or 25 30 years there's situations come up that you need help and have to make those hard decisions and I think that's um and in that process it's hard to

2:01:14know whe whether to keep going or stop uh it a lot of times it's just been pure uh perseverance that these businesses have gotten through their rough times and have gone forward so I think when the agency has to deliberate and look at this type of situation that's what that's what we're faced at

2:01:37at what point do we keep going and and try to improve at what times is it to say you know stop we have to go into another Direction uh that's what we've been wrestling with and personally I think that's why it's taken a little longer than everybody wanted to get the type of

2:01:56information we need to look at the situation to look at all the legal ramifications and to evaluate the potential of where we go with with the theater and then determine if we actually do make a decision one way or the other is that going to be the might right move to make us successful in the

2:02:17future so with that uh in conclusion I think Now's the Time to make a decision we we've looked at this we've we've had a lot of information we've tried to to get as much information as we can and look at it and um I I think it's time to take the offer of the CEO of the Downey Street the uh

2:02:40Productions and to look for a transition and go to another operator uh I feel that the uh cero theater has a much better opportunity to attract operators to look at at the plant it is phys it physically exists it's a quality facility it has a history now of two years of patrons coming we've

2:03:05looked at it the business seems to be uh going up in in a business Manner and um that it has potential for growth uh I personally think the concept is great it's a community theater it's done a lot of things that the 15 screen places don't do um I would like if we go

2:03:27forward and try to get another operator to to that be part of the criteria that they car carry forth a lot of things that are going on there now I don't think it's a concept uh problem I don't think it's whether we like the operators or don't like the operators I think it's

2:03:46pure business you take a look at the records you take a look at what's going on and it's a pure business decision at this point so uh since we only have the uh motion for the 100,000 I'm in I'm in favor of doing that so that we have a turnkey operation and I look forward if

2:04:05there's other uh resolutions coming forth tonight thank you well to so now uh unless there's any other questions I guess we'll take up the motion uh it's been moved and seconded well I have a question about the motion cuz the understanding of the motion is that it would appropriate $100,000 for

2:04:29acquiring equipment that would be used to pay off the BBI liability but without the provision that it authorizes the Redevelopment agency to transition the operator and terminate the agreement then we won't be moving forward in the direction that you indicated well I I

2:04:45have a feeling that there's going to be some uh uh motions that will address that after we take a vote on this one is I have that feeling I could be wrong well usually the motion should be considered in its entirety so if there's an amendment to the motion we no it doesn't have to be

2:05:04excuse me it doesn't have to be a motion there can be many motions on on it it doesn't have to be uh all the thoughts um the the the maker of the motion did not want to amend so I have a comment um and IT addresses what you you're what you're wondering about okay I if I look at the motion

2:05:27that was made I could see uh various possibilities for an outcome but either way I want to make this motion uh because no matter which way we go either to somehow try to retain Downey Street Productions or to get a new operator I still want to acquire the equipment I

2:05:44just need a procedural check from perhaps the city clerk or our development agency attorney on the making of the motion um well as I understand that the motion on the floor is one part of the resolution that staff provided for you as a suggestion um and I think from what

2:06:05I'm hearing is there may be a possibility that there will be second motions depending on how this one comes out taking up the other two parts of the resolution you were basically given three suggestions one is to buy the equipment one is to begin the process for transitioning to a new operator and

2:06:24then the third was to terminate the lease begin that process so you can do them all as a single motion or you could do one two and three and take them as separate items which it appears to be the maker of the motion's desire so we have a motion on the floor it's been seconded all those in favor I

2:06:46I I opposed motion carries five votes five nothing I'll entertain other motions if they're out there you have a question we don't typically make the motion first uh yes well that's the procedure so making the motion first makes it difficult to talk about what we might

2:07:07want to you know it makes it a little more difficult to figure out what it is we actually have agreement upon um to do and it's not clear to me what our agreement would be about what I'm what the next motion would be so it would be I I would actually prefer to have a

2:07:28little discussion before we make a motion uh well we had some disc Robert's Rules of Order and I'm not a PO I'm not an expert in it but this is I do know if you're going to follow them you make a motion then you have your discussion we don't normally do that well we're doing

2:07:44it tonight okay okay I'm ready to make a motion go ahead uh is it all right if I make the motion I author I move to authorize the Redevelopment agency staff to transition the operation of the Sero theater from dowy Street Productions to a new operator including the acquisition of

2:08:03Downey Street Productions equipment and fixtures at the Sero theater to Aid in the transition is there a second all second for purposes of discussion it's been moved in seconded discussion okay so I'm I'm GNA talk about why um even though I seconded this I'm not necessarily

2:08:30supportive of this against my initial reactions and my better judgment um I'm listening to what I've heard tonight from the public about potentially moving forward with the Downey Street Productions let me make sure that you guys all understand why I am torn about

2:08:47this support that you've asked me to give them they didn't pay a contractor that did work on our behalf they that worked on the building that we gave them the money to pay they reappropriated it for their operations as opposed to paying off a debt they haven't paid us rent for

2:09:0718 months um they did not maintain all of the public safety features inside the building the they didn't call us when there was flooding in the building for us to make repairs um they did not provide us timely closure uh with regards to how the parkway would affect the deal we

2:09:32were negotiating and finally they announced the potential closure of the Sero theater before getting our potential renegotiation offer out a Clos session so despite all of those those traits that would suggest that it's fiscally irresponsible to continue going with Downy Street Productions I'm

2:09:56hearing from you tonight that that is something that you want us to consider so that is the that is the basis for why I broken the motion up the way that I have because if it was left to me we would be going forward with the full motion that was before us by staff thank you other comments well I

2:10:20just guess I'm compelled by the very things you just said their business conduct to date and our 9month review that has led us to this day to make this difficult decision and I don't think it's prudent at all to put this off any further as time is of the essence to to

2:10:39facilitate a smooth transition to a new operator I'm very concerned about the parkway's um non-attendance non-commitment to continue operation and even to wait two weeks increases our chance that it will go dark I think it's to take the um actions described in the

2:10:58staff report today put us in a much better position to ensure the continuity of the facility and to do the responsible thing based on our extensive review of the financials and our exposure as a Redevelopment agency point point of clarity the motion I believe did not include the third item to

2:11:17authorize necessary steps to terminate or did you include that well it was my understanding we were taking this one at a time okay no you I'm asking what the motion was the motion was the first uh action requested yes that's correct that is correct that was my motion I'm sorry what was the motion the

2:11:41part one of the prop okay I have a question about the motion um given that we've already approved part two which appropriates up to $100,000 for equipment acquisition I'm not sure what the difference between that and I'm not Shing what where it says including acquisition of Downey

2:12:03Street Productions equipment and fixtures isn't that a duplication it the SEC the first one authorized a dollar amount that's the second one just says we're going to do it second one authorizes a dollar amount the second one is also very specific specific about

2:12:18a way of resolving a particular dispute it's not a general uh mechanism for the transition of the theater no what the confusion I'm having is um what is acquiring the equipment and fixtures mean then that's different in than number two number two I believe was a discussion of

2:12:45acquiring the some of the kitchen equipment as a way of providing Downy Street Productions with a certain amount of cash to resolve the BBI issue that's important in the partnership but does not help us to transition to a new operator I'm I'm wanting to know what

2:13:02the definition of equipment and fixtures is and number one is really what I want to know so maybe you could clarify because you added on almost duplicating the first one in your in the second motion so my understanding of equipment and fixtures are like seats and lighting

2:13:17and other Parts not the kitchen equipment I would correct it does include the kitchen equipment as well that is part of in terms of the 100,000 what was expected yes but in item one I think they're the same oh they're the same yes okay if I could just to clarify the item

2:13:40two is the formal appropriation of the money period item one is the transit is authorizing how the money is going to be spent item two is we need a we need a record where you actually appropriate $100,000 correct and and the coun the the city manager is currently reading

2:13:59from the actual resolution not necessarily from the agenda notice and and I think uh member Potter is reading from the agenda notice it it's my understanding that the Appropriations would have been included in the prior motion so so at this point I think that you're

2:14:18discussing what is item one or portion of item one which is the transition operation of Sero theater from dowy Street production to a new operator is your current motion that's why I was asking for clarification yes that's correct thank you so I have a question for staff I

2:14:36guess is it possible to and it's now hard to divorce the first one with the the last component and and what I want us to discuss is if we can explore and just see what the actual potential is there's you know staff indicated there was some conversations happening with some

2:14:55potential other operators and if we could move that discussion further along before we before we terminate the lease because if it seems like we're to terminate the lease in and explore um at the same time we're missing we're we're not giving ourselves enough buffer

2:15:14time um I I could uh take that sort of big picture and then defer to Lori trino if if they're more specifics but one of the things we've been doing is very informally so far and the feedback we're getting is folks who are following the situation don't want to be the reason they want

2:15:35the board to act they don't want to be accused within their own industry either the restaurant industry or the movie industry of being sort of sitting and sitting and waiting to jump in so they're really reluctant to sort of sit down and and move until the situation of

2:15:51Downey street is resolved I mean and I think we're we sort of backed off and stop pushing because that was the feedback we were getting from all parties familiar with the situation is they don't want to be criticized within their within their world for being the

2:16:05reason this happened like we found someone so now we're the reason you can termin it so I think it is a little bit of a chicken and egg thing but that Lori I don't know if there's anything else you would add but that's that's the informal feedback we're getting from

2:16:19operators people in the industry and even restaurant operators and I guess if I could also just get more clarification about the Fishers and they essentially want out correct or is it it's I think it's I think any other again um again Lori has had been the sort of the direct conduit

2:16:38with the fissures but I I think I don't think we could guess at what the Fishers are thinking frankly at this point and they're not here okay okay so let's uh any other before we vote on the motion well a comment or I don't know if it's a comment or just a we do have a

2:16:57document in here um where that's signed by the Fishers I don't which attachment it is without correct spending a second looking that was recent right so I I have to assume that um they stand by that they signed it yeah yeah that's the document uh Greg was reading from earlier um so I think

2:17:24attestment number nine where they agreed to correct okay so I think we should I mean that that's an assumption that I would make the only confusion that I have is that we did get that uh email from Kyle saying that there were ceasing operation and then they told other

2:17:44people they weren't so that it's it's extremely confusing to put it mildly when that kind of thing happens it's to me what we need to do is make up our own make our decision about what we want to do um what we think is best for our community can I ask um Mr Lyman a

2:18:08question about the first item we approved is that in your mind consistent with the agreement that was in attachment 9 recently signed by the Fishers that was my intention that this does talk about um you know does dra staff to begin final determinations of lease

2:18:30obligations that is certainly in there but the main obligation this letter was to transfer the equipment J yes it was to act on this letter that they've signed any other comments it just seems to me that um all aspects of the agenda item all three components are embodied in the agreement

2:19:03that Downey Street Productions has already agreed to and that the the Redevelopment agency offered well this is where we would approve or not approve it yeah okay U before we go on did you want to amend the motion to include any other information or should we take it up

2:19:30separately you said you may want to include the third step recommended item I believe that they go handin hand the um transition to a new operator also is linked to taking steps to terminate the lease agreement in order to enter into a new agreement with the new operator so

2:19:49that is a um acceptable combination of the two items okay who seconded the uh motion um I did would you agree to that Amendment uh no I would prefer that we uh discuss uh trans a smooth transition separate from termination okay uh motions on the floor I'm a little confused what the motion is

2:20:15could that be repeated please could you read that back um moved by mayor um agency member Potter and seconded by Lyman to authorize the executive director to transition operation of the Sero theater from Downey Street Productions to a new operator including acquiring Downey

2:20:31Street's equipment and fixtures at the Sero theater for up to $100,000 to Aid in that transition we already did the $100,000 this one didn't have the dollar amount right that was the earlier motion that passed this one just included the acquisition of equipment and fixtures at the Sero to

2:20:52a in the transition so it's part one is what the motion is it's part one okay exactly what stated in the sorry and and it's gotten confusing and the reason I prefer to do that is that that does not have necessarily a timeline to it where uh introducing the termination take

2:21:08necessary steps to termination does have a timeline um the passage of of the one the motion that I seconded uh does keeps the theater open uh keeps our discussions with the the Fishers going and does not necessarily put a timeline on it and I do respect your your wishes

2:21:27to get a new operator in there because we cannot predict what the Fishers are doing but I'm hoping that there are members of the audience who can hold the Fishers responsible and hopefully bring them forward in a incredible meaningful way for us to move this forward if not I

2:21:43would be back here in two weeks with the supporting the immediate termination okay uh we have a motion on the floor all those in favor I I opposed motion carries any other resolutions coming forward item three I respect Mr lyman's request that that part of the um

2:22:10decision making could be put off for two weeks okay but um um let me ask staff something can we take is there preparation in the inum of two weeks that we can go or or you you asked for author uh authorized staff to take the necessary steps to terminate and uh in conjunction with

2:22:38finding a new operator for cero theater those actions you probably have to put on hold till we act on it is that Kar doesn't make sense what would you advise the agency on this I think there will be some difficulty in trying to look for a new operator with the existing lease still

2:23:03in place um and just to give you a sense I mean if you authorize us to move forward with termination of the lease it is not a particularly Speedy process um we do have obligations under leas to give them notice and an opportunity to cure um even then it's a court procedure

2:23:24ultimately so it's not as if something would happen that the theater would go dark instantly and we would certainly be coming back to you on a regular basis but I do think it might be a struggle to start looking for a new operator if we're not moving forward with taking

2:23:39steps to end this lease because we still have an obligation under the lease to the Fishers okay yeah uh I I think what well I guess we should get a motion and and follow my my own procedure is there a motion on this I'm willing to make a motion uh that I think might

2:24:01um make this work so to speak if we delayed the action in number one which we just approved for two weeks while we see what happens in terms of contact from the Fishers then um then no one would actually actually be out there on staff wouldn't be actually out there doing anything uh regarding uh

2:24:26transitioning for two weeks um and since it wouldn't really it's not really viable to do number one without number three if we just delay number one for two weeks come back in two weeks um see what's happened if anything um that might be a better solution so um

2:24:47um I would like I'll make a motion that uh we delay implementing um the last motion that was approved for two until our next after our next meeting and that we uh consider item number three at our next meeting oh i z second motion dies uh for lack of a second okay any other resolutions coming

2:25:16forward I guess I'd like to throw out there the potential for a mediator to I understand that staff has worked really hard and the the subcommittee has spent a lot of hours with the Fishers and and given this block of communication like they're just stonewalling us I just wonder if

2:25:39that's something we could consider over the next two weeks I know it's additional resources to do that but I mean we need and and that's just throwing something out there that potentially we could move forward maybe with uh members of the community who want to participate

2:25:58in that Forum I I'm I'm not sure but is that a motion um or could you state a motion sure I'll State a motion to um engage a mediator a third party mediator that is impartial to the to the city staff as well as the fers to step in and try to um get a solid answer from the Fishers regarding

2:26:24this you know deal agree this um lease restructuring agreement that has been you know worked on with Katherine fiser um over the last few months and and see what we can do with that is there a second motion okay okay motion dies du last lack of a second any other motions or

2:26:53sure I'll make a motion I'd like to move uh to direct staff to implement the last motion by meeting with the Fishers between now and the Thursday before our next meeting to meet with them with regards to a smooth transition to a new operations or continued operations such

2:27:15that um that there is some attempt to do that to make a meeting um I understand it may be difficult to uh to actually get that meeting to occur um but I'm hoping again I'll I'll uh express my desire to the members of the of the public that are sitting out there to use whatever influences you

2:27:36have essentially you have 10 days um so my motion is that over the next 10 days staff attempt to meet with the Fishers for either continued operations a discussion of continued operations or the transition smooth transition is pursuant to our last motion and if not

2:27:57uh they bring forward a termination motion at our next or termination uh agenda item at our next meeting I'll second that it's been moved in second discussion any discussion well I I guess again I'm very sensitive about um putting this off we have already corresponded with the Fishers that

2:28:20they're in default of their lease agreement they're 18 months behind on their rent they haven't been willing to sit down and talk to this point and I feel that 10 days two weeks another month is only going to delay our goal to prevent this theater from going dark and

2:28:36from incurring even more uh damage to our investment and the energy in the community so it's difficult I mean I like the ideas but I just think that it's really tonight is the night that we need to make these hard decisions and it feels like we're just putting it off yeah I'll

2:28:57have I I agree with uh agency member Potter it's time to make a decision and we either go forward or not there's been plenty of time um I I respect what you're trying to do uh an with mediation and and Greg I understand the last ditch effort but I think I think

2:29:20the effort has been put forward in in that regard in in various ways over the the past so I I would not be in favor of that motion I I respectfully I I definitely understand both agency member Potter and Jones's uh positions um and respect it and would be in your shoes hadn't I not

2:29:42seen 60 people show up tonight several of them being uh investors in the in thiso theater um so uh We've not given the public I mean this is the first time the public is getting an opportunity to see how um really dysfunctional uh it is out there in the in the Sero and uh I think it's really

2:30:08their opportunity to step forward and try and influence something uh that if we uh take this action tonight uh that you're the action that you you know making a last final decision tonight to terminate uh does not give the public the opportunity to to share their influences um and maybe I'm

2:30:30being a a freshman and very overly optimistic that the public has any desire or influence on this but but I I do believe that there is a possibility for public intervention here and I I that's that's the purpose of my motion I would have I I absolutely agree I think

2:30:53being the Fishers are touting their model to be a community- based model and they will listen to the public they will listen to the community I hope and we have 10 days to test that um given the massive amount of support that you have all expressed to us we've heard it and I

2:31:14I hope that they've heard it they've seen the the rise in numbers of patrons but I think now that you've all heard all the background of the negotiations the troubles um I think you know the extent that you guys can get out there and really appeal to this you know anchor in our community and

2:31:36understand what is their commitment because you know culturally they're very it's a what makes the Fishers Downey Street production Speaky easy so wonderful and appealing is because they're so edgy they're alternative and this is their first step into partnering with an

2:31:55institution you know the man the woman you so you know and it's a very it's culturally I I recognize that they did the parkway all on their own without any public support official City support and now they've combined efforts with us and it's been a new process to understand

2:32:14how does that work for them I mean their mom and pop shop it's very scary terrain and territory you know they've leveraged you know their mortgage their savings and you know they're it's a scary place to be and they have pride and I respect that um and so it's really hard to come

2:32:30forward to you know to come to this our house which is you know the the government institution um but I believe that you know to the extent that you can in you know appeal to them and really understand and get them to come to our meetings and get them to talk to us and

2:32:47and get them to to negotiate in honesty and in you know certain commitments um that's really our chance right now um my comments on that I've I've heard and I've read all the emails I've heard people and what I hear more than anything else is that we want to keep

2:33:10the theater that the theater is the point of focus as a Community Asset and they like certain as the public likes certain aspects of the operation which we could try make sure we incorporate um we wouldn't be sitting here that we wouldn't be sitting here if the rent and the taxes were current we

2:33:35are not Partners in the business operation we're basically a landlord we're not Partners we're a landlord um and we have purposely stayed out of a private business's operation if if things were current or if they would have studied some of the proposals that uh we put forward and

2:34:01were supposed to be taking up tonight uh if it wasn't for their notice to the agency that they want to stop operating then uh we would be talking about the very things you're talk you're bringing up I think that's my position anyway I it's it's not easy to tell somebody that has put

2:34:22in a lot of time and money into an operation that it that it no longer can get go but I think we're at that point personally uh I just wanted to offer a point of perspective on the Investments and I absolutely respect everybody out here who has made a statement about

2:34:43their investment whatever it be but by far the largest investor in this partnership was the people of elero and those are the people whose uh Financial stability we need to protect and when we're talking today about what's a perceived 10day delay that's not a 10day

2:35:00delay that's a minimum of a month because of the requirement for public notice of any other proposal that we would have been able to put forward and that puts us into June and just to remind everybody in the depths of our worst economic depression in a half a century we are faced with

2:35:19approving our city budget by June 30th and we are very far behind because we have been investing so much time in this struggle right now that we're that we're hearing tonight so just as a reminder that that delay might seem like a small amount and that you know it makes it more comfortable but we

2:35:38have been holding public meetings we've had public comment before close session for months on this item and the materials have been out for review and I so appreciate everybody's comment but I do urge you to consider uh the other obligations that we have in um running the city and the Redevelopment

2:35:58agency I would like to bring up uh one point that uh and maybe it would appeal to you that we heard from agency Council that the the process of shutting of going from one operator to the other and terminating uh actually has a process where we have to um offer a

2:36:21resolution um for instance uh so maybe that's the point that when that point comes in the process that that then we can take up uh the point of trying to to see where they're at and if there is a solution and I'd have to say I I agree I think having heard the the details of

2:36:42that process it sounds like there is a chance for us to get them in the room to sit down to go over that detailed lease agreement lease restructuring that the subcommittee has been working really hard on um and to really vet that so um I'm willing to I I could be convinced to

2:37:02withdraw my motion if if I get the right answer or the an answer to this question in in the opportunity to cure which is what chair person Jones is talking about uh is the opportunity for us to come back and renegotiate a ddla a new D part of the of the right to

2:37:22cure would be of somewhat of an atypical right to cure but certainly the first step in terminating the lease would be to send them a notice listing all the defaults telling them that they have 30 days to cure them they can come back with a proposal for how they would want to cure

2:37:40those and that may be could we restructure this so so the a restructure of the D ddla could be part of their proposed cure right and we would have to come back to you obviously I withraw my motion is the second is that okay with the second does it he's withdraw it's

2:38:02okay but I don't think it has to be no you're right excuse me you're right okay the motion has been withdrawn do we want to entertain another motion that sets that process in uh in motion and if so something like number three is probably what we should do so I'll make a motion

2:38:23to authoriz staff to take necessary steps to terminate the Sero theater lease agreement with um an effort toward to cure with the Downey Street production in conjunction with finding a new operator for the Sero theater is there a second a second it's been moved and

2:38:44seconded on the motion discussion further discussion um I just want to say I I I really appreciate the Public's you know patience with this very procedural you know discussion but ultimately I think it sounds like to me that this is a really we do have the window of time to

2:39:09appeal to your you know efforts to you know really understand and help the the Fishers understand where we're at and that we come at come at this negotiation with the utmost sincerity in wanting to see the theater succeed um I think you know we've heard that you know the

2:39:26concept of the theater is we would keep that and that would you know in any future operator to come but I think you know mending that communication is really key is if we are to if if they will come around um and try to restructure the deal but ultimately no matter what you have my commitment that

2:39:47the theater would you know maybe it's minus the Fishers themselves but the model of what is there the eating there the drinking you know the beer and baby Brigade and you know all that the the juice you know the great meat of what they've brought would be retained and um

2:40:05and I hope that would you know so we'll see when we get there I'd like to call a question it's it's been moved and seconded we'll vote on the motion all those in favor i i i opposed nay 4 to one motion carries any other resolutions or issues to discuss on this thank you very much appreciate

2:40:29everybody's uh participation and patience as we try to work through the different ideas um there there will be opportunities to uh resolve this thank you and we're going to take a five minute break before resuming the city council meeting on item five you'd like to continue the ELA city

2:50:47council meeting and I need a motion to extend the meeting I move to extend the meeting until 11: second all in favor I oppos so we now are on item five adoption of the consent calendars items 5A through 5f move ad minut can we hold off and Qui we're in session now could we

2:51:12please uh move adoption of the consent calendar items 5 a through 5f second all in favor I I opposed um motion carries unanimously so in keeping with the order established we are now on item seven a public hearing on the appeal of a Planning Commission condition of

2:51:40approval to limit a fence to 3 feet high in the RS5 single family residential zoning District at 1460 navier Street tonight the city council will hear testimony regarding this appeal and I would like to take a moment to outline the procedure for the hearing after

2:52:00opening the public hearing I'll request a presentation from staff following the staff presentation the council will hear 10-minute presentation from the applicant or appellant at the conclusion of the presentation we will hear from any um one from the public who has

2:52:15signed up to speak with the city clerk if you have not submitted a speaker slip please do so and your remarks will be limited to three minutes per person after the public has spoken um the appellant will have five minutes to respond to the comments and after everyone has had an opportunity to speak

2:52:32in the public hearing we will seek a motion to close the hearing and the um city council will deliberate so with that lengthy explanation of our procedure I'll ask for the staff report good evening Madam mayor and members of the council my name is Noel ialo I'm a senior

2:52:51planner with the planning division just to briefly give you a a background on the project prior to February 23rd of this year the uh contractor for the owner erected posts for a new fence without filing a uh any permits with the city now our code enforcement officer

2:53:12saw the construction and advised the uh contractor to submit a fence clearance permit to the planning division upon review of the plans the applicant was ADI advised by the planning staff that approval of a use permit was required due to the height of the fence on March 18th the Planning

2:53:34Commission considered the uh case and heard testimony from the applicant after deliberating the case the commission approved Pro the use permit permit adding a condition that the fence along the front setback be limited to 3 ft high and that the fence along the

2:53:53retaining wall be limited to 5'6 in as measured from the midpoint of the retaining wall it is the 3-ft height requirement that the commission imposed that the applicant appealed for tonight the proposed fence is intended to to deter deer from um trespassing the property

2:54:18and basically eating the Landscaping that the owner planted out there um we do have a specific General plan policy that and zoning ordinance that requires and allows for such uh fences to locate within the front setback um findings of course need to be made for the use permit um for the

2:54:41approval of the fence the commission believed that the that such findings could not be made with how the fence is designed and so they added the condition that the height be limited to 3 ft um the commission based their decision on uh safety citing that the fence is in

2:55:02obstruction is obstructing the drivers both on the public RightWay and for drivers backing out of the uh the subject driveway have redesigned the fence with the approval approval of our traffic engineer uh staff maintains that the V visibility of the drivers um is

2:55:26clear um from the street and from the driveway now our traffic engineer did look at the redesign and confirmed that this was um this met their safety requirements the commission also cited that there were a other means by way of deer appellant to implement rather than

2:55:49the 5 foot high fence uh staff however reaffirms that the deer fences have been constructed throughout the city that there is a specific General plan policy that allows for them and is implemented by the zoning uh the zoning ordinance staff recommends that the council

2:56:11approve the appeal and allow for the 5 foot high fence to locate along the front setback this concludes staff's presentation of the report I know the uh applicant is here to answer any further questions you may have thank you is there are there any questions for

2:56:28staff I have one um on page four the uh uh it's actually the second paragraph I guess it's the first one that starts on page four it got um it says that staff believes while reducing the height of fence to 3 ft May provide a more open view of the front yard it is it will not increase

2:56:59vehicular safety nor meet the needs of the owner in deterring animals from uh for foraging landscaping and from people TR TR trespassing on on the site so I'd like to know why what did you use to evaluate that all these things can be met with a 5- foot fence through the the safety you you've

2:57:29explain but I more of keeping people off and and keeping animals out of there through me Potter the um um we did talk to to the applicant and the contractor or the contractor and his findings and his experience through through building these types of fences that the 5 foot

2:57:57high fence would deter a deer from entering the property um enough to where they would move on to the next um landscaped area or the next feeding grounds so he felt that at the 5T that would stop any um any deer from jumping into into the yard it would also prevent

2:58:26um the the owner has State the applicant has stated that people have come onto her property um and hopefully that the at the 5 foot um and the way that the fence is designed that that would also deter people from entering the property so it is through the mainly through the uh the

2:58:50contractor's expertise on building these fences that I relied um on on the design okay so there wasn't a neutral third party that offered there wasn't a neutral third party that offered an opinion no okay thank you appreciate you're welcome I have a question about the yard

2:59:08um and the landscaping and the nature of the deer issue like is there documented um damage to the Shrubbery as a result of the deer and has there been an attempt to plant plants that deer are less inclined to eat I could answer part of that question I'd also like to defer that to to the

2:59:33contractor when I went out there to visit the site the contractor showed me where um the deer has forged part of the existing lands scaping and most of the new Landscaping that they planted now as far as deer deterrent Landscaping I'd have to refer to the to the contractor for that okay

2:59:56Mr Lyman is it possible for them to uh comply with the ordinances or do they need to have this I mean is it's possible for them to comply correct through May Potter yes it is possible for them to comply with the 3-ft high fence however the interest in keeping deer out they would need that

3:00:17that 5 foot high fence that they're asking for and the three foot height would deter pedestrian traffic from casually moving onto their property yes and if they used alternative plantings they it's new plantings that they're putting in they could have selected deer

3:00:33resistant deer tolerant uh plantings now because they are replacing Landscaping they could they yes they can provide for deer Landscaping that would possibly prohibit the deer from eating the Landscaping but according to the contractor they planted deer retardant Landscaping but the deer

3:00:57still ate it so um and with regards to the three foot high fence yes it'll keep out um uh pedestrians but if anyone was interested they could just hop a hop over a 3 foot high fence yet it's 3ot high everywhere else in the city I mean that's the same problem we could have at

3:01:17any location so I'm not understanding uniqueness of this particular neighborhood with regards to uh that type of um egregious behavior on the public we just for point of clarity going to the the and I will say staff report is very um illustrative and and well done with regards to our being able

3:01:37to talk about the two different F fence segments fence a sitting on top of the wall and fence B sitting on uh a grade level um the planning commission's action on fence segment a was to allow what height of fence they allowed for a 5 and 1/2 foot high fence measured

3:01:59from the midpoint of the retaining wall up so and there is a branch there that the the current posts have been loed off to accommodate the branch and and it appears the post was lopped off at about I'm going to say 3 and 1/2 Four 3 ft above the concrete wall but the

3:02:20wall at that point was about 4 feet maybe three and a half four feet off the ground so that the top of the post was still maybe six or seven feet off the the paved the sidewalk at that point is that the height that the Planning Commission was generally trying to

3:02:35achieve where the top of fence would be 6 feet off the sidewalk it would be about uh uh 4 feet from the top of the retaining wall so in in any regards yeah defense segment a will achieve deer deer retardant is that correct so we're now that segment yes so it's only F fence

3:02:58segment B that we're having this discussion about five versus three that really is the the question and the nature of the appeal are there any other questions okay um so is the uh anyone represent representing the appellant here good evening um my name is Mark Mangus with Eminem Tree Service Mangus

3:03:28Enterprises and I'm representing uh Dorothy s who is um fairly elderly and lives alone and um it's actually a little late for her to be here um so to answer um well first of all just to state the reason that that we're appealing this mainly is based on um the um in the regulations the it

3:03:51allows for an exception for a deer fence specifically to keep deer out um and also that we worked with the Planning Commission in trying to design the fence so that it worked um with their their uh concerns for um traffic impediments and we actually moved it back um uh we um actually moved all the

3:04:17posts back about 6 in off the sidewalk where they originally were and then we then moved the corner by the driveway back about 6 feet so that there would be if you were to back out the driveway there would be even more um clearance to see even though the fence is not going

3:04:36it's not a solid fence I'm hope we're all clear on that it's it's going to be rod iron and it's going to be very open and it's not really going to be any any um different than the way it is now with just the posts there um to answer um some of your questions I I think the

3:04:53posts where they are now um are not where the exact height of the fence is going to be they're just that we set the posts and then they'll be cut down but you don't cut them down before you put the the rod iron in between um in regards to the deer um it's experience in doing this for almost 30

3:05:14years that deer a a five or five and A2 foot high fence or even a six fo high fence won't necessarily keep a deer out if it wants to go over it like if something's chasing a deer it can jump a six foot high fence but it's not going to um on its own just wander over a five

3:05:33foot or five and a half foot high fence just to get into somebody's yard if a three foot high fence it can just walk right over it um they'll just kind of move on so um it's my experience that a fence that high will keep the deer out and in regards to um the planting we

3:05:49have planted um or we had planted deer resistant um plants and then there was all were also a lot of existing plants uh mature maple trees um a somewhat mature small cedar tree which the deer are actually peeling the bark off of and when you peel the bark off of a tree it

3:06:08will kill the tree the the branches will die if you peel it off the trunk the trunk will die the tree will die um not only that but in walking through there they actually broke a bunch of plants and then somebody else actually came in and stalled a bunch of plants we assume they

3:06:25disappeared so um that's the gist of it um you have any questions Mr Jones yes uh I I just want a little bit of background on this your LIC contractor correct and you said 30 years in the business um you said you're representing the uh owner is there a formal agreement between you and the

3:06:55owner that um you'd be representing her um I'm her contractor we have a agreement to do the work okay to mean to be here in her on her behalf yeah um or is that implicit with the your contract yeah excuse me if I may answer that question through mayor Potter the

3:07:22uh the owner authorized the applicant or the contractor to act on our behalf in our application also so she under under our application for the use permit he basically represents the owner okay yeah that's what I I just wanted to make sure that just want to make sure that there was

3:07:46there's some sort of authorization uh to go forward you know yeah I I was a little confused because she didn't actually specifically write something out to say that but I well she indicated on the application that that you are that's great I I I'm a little uh first of all well I have two things here

3:08:09I'm a little curious of why we got to the point where there wasn't a permit pulled for the work and that it had to be stopped and then a permit uh you know taken out well because um it was a miscommunication on my fault that was my fault um with my office in terms of what the regulations were on

3:08:34where you could put a fence up in front of the house and what the setbacks were if we were to put the fence back 15 ft it would be fine but her her front yard is about 20 ft from her house is all there is so it was a miscommunication we thought we could go 5T where it was

3:08:55versus we could only go 3 feet there so you weren't familiar with the uh the code then correct okay then what happened once the code came out you stopped all work and applied for the permit absolutely absolutely and actually we moved um we moved all of the post back I think it was 4 inches

3:09:20because of the requirement being 5T and um from the edge of the sidewalk and they were within I think it was either 4 in or maybe 2 in back if you could clarify in the report it says that the you set back 4 feet and then I I believe in your presentation you said that you set them back six feet

3:09:41uh what is the set back on is it four feet or well it's what know what I was talking about was where this the it's on a curve and where the curve comes down next to the driveway we've actually tapered it back so that instead of coming along with the Curve alongside the driveway it's 6 ft

3:10:02back and then as it goes up it tapers back to 4 feet exactly okay so most of it is 4 feet except when it tapers then you go back six feet right we allowed for an extra setback so that there would be extra visibility coming for not necessarily coming around the turn but

3:10:19if somebody was to be backing out the driveway okay thank you appreciate it she doesn't back out she doesn't drive actually but if somebody was to Mr L thank um this is a question for for staff uh what is the setback that that allows you know where it would transition from 3 feet to a higher

3:10:37height six or even potentially 8 ft the required set setback is called the front front yard setback um the front yard setback is designated as as the first 10 ft of the property once you get to that 10 ft line from the inside part of the the sidewalk basically the the public rway 10 ft back

3:11:03is where the uh front yard setback ends and then you can go up to 6 ft and and now question for the contractor where that is on the property appears to be about where a pathway is um you know if you went 10 ft back from the sidewalk uh you'd go up the hill and it would be about where there's a

3:11:26pathway uh was there ever consideration or discussion of putting the fence there and and having the uh the plantings on the outside be uh subject to Deer browsing um subject to Deer browsing um um um not really with the customer that's not what she wanted um there like for instance I

3:11:53haven't exactly measured it but I believe the cedar tree which was existing there and possibly the Petry are um would be outside of that and what's happened to the pretry actually and the maple trees too is the deer peeling the bark off of the trees and killing those trees

3:12:13um it would also the path B is is kind of it's more for looks it's not as much for use um so I I don't know if that anwers your question or not thank you any other questions of the appellant okay thank you um we'll now hear from the public and the city clerk there are no speakers

3:12:44no speakers okay so given that there are no comments we're going to skip the other part unless you have anything else to add uh we haven't heard any comments from the public we had a couple correspondences in our packet regarding this appeal but hearing none we're going to

3:13:05can I get a motion to close the hearing I move we close the hearing second all in favor I I oppose so that motion carries um and now I'll bring it back for discussion how about a motion well okay you can do a motion I move we deny the appeal and uphold the planning

3:13:24commission's findings I any seconds second is there any discussion of the motion great um I I believe that this property is eligible to to meet inside the our typical zoning requirements uh and the area that is um subject to Deer browsing if this was 3 ft tall is quite

3:13:53small and could potentially be uh protected with other u means and that there are even potentially uh browsing protection that could be put up around the trees to protect the trees if the trees are the uh subject of the browsing [Music] concern okay I have a comment about the um

3:14:13fences and I I'm pretty familiar with the provision in the is it in the general plan or in the zoning that the deer grazing to keeping the deer out and other animals out it it is in our general plan and then it's implemented through our zoning ordinance it's in both because when it

3:14:35was discussed in the general plan it was very specific to uh large Lots up in the hills and it was to protect large yard areas and the reason we have the 3-foot requirement in the front yard is to preserve a sense of community with a low hedge or a low fence in the front yard

3:14:56so we don't get that feeling of a barrier in the community and I'm particularly concerned with this proposal because the yard is so small as Mr Lyman pointed out and because of the design of the fence even though it's open it has a very um barred off kind of appearance of shutting out that front of

3:15:13that house which is situated on the corner and I think that the reading of the zoning ordinance and the general plan is not to assume because we have deer everywhere in Els Sero every single street that you walk on I've seen a deer and they are going to they're going to

3:15:29eat the things they come across now I don't know how extensive it a problem it is but um I don't believe that that was the intent that every lot where there might be deer would be allowed under under use permit to put a six five or six foot high fence um without any other

3:15:48without meeting any other thresholds if I may respond the uh both the general plan policy as well as the zoning language does not specify whether the lot is a large lot whether it's in the Hills whether it's in the flat lands it it it's not clear so it's basically

3:16:11implemented throughout throughout the city um so that that was the language we had and would were bound to implement well I think that we have not seen evidence I mean I'm a little bit concerned about the reports of the deer problem with mature trees because I'm

3:16:32wondering how did they get mature if they there's no change in conditions at navier over time regarding the accessibility to to Wildlife and um I can address that I I um have lived in elero since 1970 and my current address since [Music] 1973 I think and uh I have never seen

3:17:01deer in my neighborhood until this year um when I have had deer in my backyard um so I think there is a changing condition going on right now specifically I don't know if that's what's going on there but I can tell you in my yart it's going on and I think it has to do with uh perhap I mean I'm

3:17:22speculating has to do with the drought or something but um I I don't think that they have always been everywhere in elero but um and I look at this address and um it's fairly far down the hill so I assume that what's going on in my area might be going on on there also

3:17:43okay well I can respect that there could be a change in conditions and I'm wondering if there are um well maybe we should take this motion up first but then discuss the possibility of making um adjustments to our regulation given that we're not interested in six fo high

3:17:59fences all over the front yards and yet we may be having an increasing deer problem so um is there other discussion on the motion yeah I think it's I think we're we're kind of at a cross-section here because what I'm hearing staff saying is that and and having been on the Planning Commission

3:18:19there have been you know this this variance has been invoked and that there's increasing interest in you know planting you know not just Landscaping but edible foods and you know local food security and those ideas and and that is something that will either increasingly

3:18:38come up um you know we do have deer everywhere or in a lot of places but you know I I personally uh flipped off my bike right there I know it's very close to the hillside Church area it's I don't know I mean imagine there's you it's very close to to Deer frequented areas

3:18:58um and I I am sensitive to not wanting to barricade and close off um have that you know barrier feeling maybe considering other building materials like you know wood Fram with you know a grid typee wire mesh um as a possible building material but in terms of invoking the deer

3:19:22variant it's there's a bigger issue I think that at some point will have to be addressed okay so it's been moved to uphold the decision of the Planning Commission and deny the appeal and seconded I I started out um in favor in my thinking in in favor of the three-foot fence um because I think that

3:19:51the N the reason that we have what we have in our general plan and in our zoning is primarily a safety issue that we need to be able to see as we go as as you go around the the curve that I think is the the real basis for it not Aesthetics per se but rather safety um

3:20:12because it it can be a real safety issue but as I um I thought more and more about the planning uh um staff's recommendation I realized that that they would all you know consider that and um so I and with this proposed fence which you'll be able to see through I think

3:20:34that helps take care of the issue with the um visibility also so um with those things things in mind and um hearding having heard many a story about how difficult it is to deal do I can't speak deal with deer uh and what they like to eat um I um I am very I'm supportive of

3:21:00the staff recommendation so I'm not supportive of the motion okay well let's have a vote um all in favor of the motion I I opposed no so the motion carries 3 to2 and um I just want to reiterate that at some point we should have a discussion about any proposed changes to the zoning and

3:21:26general plan regarding the deer issue in the fence Heights okay we need a motion to extend the meeting I'll make a motion to extend um 10 after that enough think so second all in favor I opposed okay till 10 after we are now moving on to item eight Council leison

3:21:57reports I have a couple okay um I attended a uh Summit on I 80 the I80 quor Interstate 80 uh up in UC at UC Davis it was for um officials from osta and uh Solano counties um I attended that on April 22nd and after that uh and you know it was on the the various issues and one of

3:22:24the issues that we discussed there there were a number but uh one of the issues that we talked about were what are being called hot Lanes um what hot lanes are are Lanes where you could basically in a single occupancy car buy your way into the HOV or um you know 3 plus Lane in on

3:22:48I80 uh simply by paying money and um so anyway the issue then went to wiac on which I represent uh this group and then uh at wict Tac it was unanimously voted to support some um alterations in a proposed bill that's before the legislature right now um the uh I'm trying left out a piece

3:23:16which was that this is basically a uh Bay Area bill it only affects the Bay Area and um it's being sponsored by MTC so MTC had um set up some sort of the parameters under which the the um hot Lanes would operate and um so the propos proposal that came from Wick teac was to add three conditions to

3:23:45that um it's a little bit complicated and complex anyway um so we unanimously supported these three recommendations which have to do with saying that um after the expenses the a net of 50% would go to Transit it said that there could be breaks in the hot Lane um so that it wouldn't be a

3:24:10continuous Lane throughout the 9B Area Counties where it started and that there would be criteria um so then I was up in Sacramento and um uh managed to meet with the author of the bill uh Alberto toico and uh managed to get we actually managed to get two of those conditions

3:24:32included in the bill uh not the one about funding Transit however they were not willing unfortunately to do that uh at this time but uh we did get those two conditions about breaks and the the reason it's really important for I80 is that there actually is a proposal to uh

3:24:51put a hot Lane on I80 in contracosta County um being considered right now um they are also considering changing the three plus lanes for the HOV lanes to four plus uh in order to allow room for the hot Lanes in contracosta County so um those of us who sit on wi wict Tac

3:25:14are not happy about this and I would imagine that most residents of contracosta County will not be happy if they ever have to use I80 but that's the status of that and I thought it was important to let you know um and that I have been working on it um a lot um okay and then I also attended um

3:25:36the abag meeting uh on April the 23rd and I um it was um about SB 375 was the theme of the meeting and I thought what I would just do is ask that this handout that we got which is sort of an overview of SB 375 be included in our next packet okay and um then um today I attended another meeting

3:26:08sponsored by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District um called the climate action Leadership Summit where we um further discussed um issues surrounding um climate protection and our keynote speaker was Thomas fredman who who wrote a book on the subject and

3:26:27it was held most interestingly in the Fox Theater in Oakland this first time this been open for about three months um and um it it um is an enormous theater I don't know if any of you were ever in it it when it was open before but it's been totally restored it cost $93

3:26:47million um which kind of made our conversation earlier in the evening it put it in perspective um um and they had it was really beautiful though the theater inside so if you ever get a chance please go look at it um but they've uh turned it into a um performing

3:27:07space and um so I just wanted to share that that so that's those are the meetings that I have attended recently thank you thanks Mr lman Mr Jones yeah ahead um just to go back to the S specific plan uh council member Cheney and I were were there and what what's nice is that we're we're seeing

3:27:33the end here uh we're coming up to the end there will be dates uh we'll try to get them either in the packet or in the report uh by the specific plan it does go we will be meeting through the summer but if we stay on track the uh everything will be complete by the end

3:27:50of the year and then hopefully it will go to the two cities for consideration and hopefully adoption but um I thought it was a good meeting uh we wrapped up the last of the segments in which we're going to look at so now we're into final discussions and and writing the report and recommendation so

3:28:15it can go forward thank you yeah I'll just add that it was it was a good meeting um I the the key is that they're anticipating releasing the draft plan contents early July in preparation for I think July 20th for the advisory committee meeting and then uh to discuss

3:28:36the actual content of the plan and then um in August hold the final community worksh shop and then head into the Planning Commission um Council but it's um you know it's it's good that we're moving forward and I think um and yeah I just encourage anybody who's still at home watching to come and

3:28:57to to to participate great thank you um I just wanted to announce that the West County Mayors and supervisors meeting from late April was cancelled so that did not occur um and to remind folks a number of us are signed up to attend the country Costa County mayor's conference

3:29:14which will be in Hercules next Thursday on May 7th this Thursday this Thursday yes we started a new week thank you and the state state controller the state controller will be speaking so I think it'll be very interesting and helpful for us as we begin our budget

3:29:32process um so that completes item8 and we will now finish the city council meeting and I'll hand it over to agency member Jones to announce the closed session thank you uh the Redevelopment agency will be meeting in Clos session to consider um to discuss two items under government

3:29:54code section 5495 6.8 one of them having to do with Target Corporation and the second one uh on uh uh litigation BBI versus dowy Street uh production city of elero Redevelopment agency of the city of elero in Conor Costa Superior Court case number C- 8-22 49 at this time I'd like to take public

3:30:28comment on on these issues no speaker slip submitted thank you seeing none we will um close the open session and go into close session thank you