Special Concurrent City Council and Redevelopment Agency Meeting December 7, 2009

0:00:04evening everybody and welcome to the special concurrent city council Redevelopment agency meeting for the city of elero I will ask the clerk for the roll call please council member Chang here council member Lyman here council member Jones here vice mayor son here and mayor

0:00:31Potter here and Miss council member Chang will lead us in the pledge 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 justice for all this evening we have a number of

0:00:59staff and city council Communications and we're going to start um with the first announcement from the Elso Police Department regarding the law enforcement challenge award good evening everyone Madame mayor uh I'm Sergeant Steve benini and I'm happy to come back

0:01:22again for uh this year our department and our traffic safety unit received a another first place award from the California law enforcement challenge which a lot of you are aware pit similar size agencies against each other throughout the state as to how well their traffic units and their Department

0:01:39are performing in the areas of traffic safety so over 2008 we finished first in that category which to be honest with you I expected considering our men and women that work for us in our Traffic Unit the thing that was slightly different this year was that we also

0:01:54received an award for our Commercial Vehicle Safety so our commercial vehicle uh enfor enforement officers did an outstanding job and we placed first in that special award category so that that award's a little bit different because it it pits against the Elso Police

0:02:09Department against all the other agencies in the state including Oakland Los Angeles San Diego so our Traffic Unit of four people did a fantastic job when it came to Commercial Vehicle Enforcement we have two dedicated officers assigned just to Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Officers John mik

0:02:29and or sh hubs and they just did an outstanding job without those two out on the street weighing commercial vehicles and getting involved in those big rig trucks that you see going up and down St Pablo Avenue yes a lot of them are unsafe a lot of them have some serious

0:02:43break issues that you can't see unless you get involved a lot of them are overweight so those guys are out there taking care of that helping get the Ure our streets a little more safer when it comes to those big rcks so I have the two awards for you guys to take a look

0:02:56at I'd like to thank uh the city council for their dedication this program getting started our chief of police is anything that's worth doing comes from the top down he's been very very supportive of the traffic unit and the rest of the men and women at the elre

0:03:12police department they did a great job and this couldn't be done without him so thank you thank you very much great job for everyone from elrio Police Department particularly from the traffic enforcement unit okay are there any other staff Communications then I'd like to start

0:03:36with council member Lyman with his announcements good evening everyone um I have a few announcements I'll try and make them clear and quickly um first is uh the police department is hosting on Friday January 29th a canine crab feed uh so this is a a charity event with the

0:03:58proceeds going towards our um our Police Department it'll be at the community center 700 p.m. Friday January 29th and tickets are available uh at the police department or by calling 510 215 4414 extension 4 and leaving a message they'll call you back um I attended the

0:04:26on this last Saturday I attended the fire department's pasta fee uh where dinner was served for anyone who brought in an unwrapped toy this was at the this is part of the Kensington elero and Richmond fire departments participating in collecting presents for uh youth uh

0:04:43families can apply through the Richmond YMCA for uh for presence uh and if you have unwrapped toys please bring them to your police your fire department the big red barrel uh up to and through December 16th and if you missed that date bring it any way they'll they'll get to needy

0:05:03children um this last Saturday I attended the and welcome everyone to go see the the Art Exhibit upstairs here at City Hall uh the reception was last Saturday with the artist the artist is to um and she has a very distinctive style of capturing motion so I would

0:05:23encourage everyone to go see the exhibit is called music for your eyes um and and then the crime prevention committee met uh recently and uh uh we we have some good news and and when the um Hardware arrives we will come before the council for yet another uh ceremony uh so hopefully we'll we'll

0:05:47have that soon uh they are working on uh new brochures for their programs uh most notably the neighborhood watch and the home security inspection U uh brochures so those brochures will hopefully be finalized soon and available for distribution um thank you that's it hey

0:06:08I have several announcements I'd like to make first of all Saturday is going to be a very busy day from 9 to 11: at the community center there will be a uh pancake breakfast um and the funds collected from that breakfast will be used for the David Hunter memorial fund uh David

0:06:27Hunter is a um former employee of the parks and recck Department who was the um swim instructor who was um who lost his life in a automobile accident a number of years ago um I think he actually worked or knew my kids who are actually out in the audience right now um and to honor his memory uh and to

0:06:49collect uh funds for scholarships for those are who are unable to pay to participate in our uh Recreation program um we're holding this annual breakfast and I hope you can come you can get tickets at the community center if you like then at 11: uh after that's over there will be a

0:07:14movie shown uh called who killed the electric car it'll be at the Sero theater uh it's um co-sponsored by the city of Els Sero Environmental Quality committee and the League of Women Voters and there's no charge uh there will be a discussion afterwards so I hope you can

0:07:32find time to go to those two events on Saturday then um around the uh turn of the year on January 2nd and 3rd there will be a free Electronics waste collection event um which will be held at the DMV as it usually is um just behind City Hall at 6400 Manila between

0:07:54the hours of 9 and 3 that's on Saturday Sunday January 2nd and 3 3D and if you look at our website you'll see what items you can bring but basically it's electronic uh waste such as monitors and so forth um then the other thing I wanted to mention and this is pursuant

0:08:14to ab1234 I um am at the uh incoming chair of the community services policy committee for the state League of California cities and as such I uh attended a Le leaders training um in Anaheim on uh Wednesday the 18th through the 20th and one of the things that we did at that training was

0:08:41develop the goals for the new year for the league of California cities and there are three goals to protect local control and funding for Vital local resources support reform of the structured governance management and financing of state government and uh to to promote economic stimulus

0:09:01infrastructure investment Business Development and job creation um and um that's all I have to announce thank you thank you thank you uh just three items here excuse me uh maybe I'm I'm late to this party but um Conor Costa College is now uh conducting classes at Elso high

0:09:26school and so regular classes for credit and the whole deal so um those of you that didn't know that and are interested in uh some uh accredited classes right at Elso high school or Elso high school you can find some of those classes I also like to thank the uh television

0:09:46cable folks uh they're behind the scenes even more so now they're in in a room there uh running things but I think they do an excellent job have ever since they started when we were at the the community center um and now here with all the remotes but I think they do a

0:10:04great job and like to thank them again for this year's service and finally um those in the soccer Community Soccer Community um probably know this but I I bring it up because Fred koutra was um a special person within the uh soccer uh Community not only in elero

0:10:26but in the greater Bay Area and one thing about Fred is he always was positive he want if there was a uh a child that wanted to play um Fred when I knew him anyway Fred did everything he could to to find a spot for him um so Fred Fred left us uh last week and uh he

0:10:47was also uh worked in Social Security Administration there in Richmond so I just wanted to pass that on he's a very special person thank you um so quickly I wanted to announce that on this coming Monday There's a community meeting on the safety improvements underway on the Loney

0:11:06Greenway sentially uh letting folks know what's coming in terms of the installation of surveillance cameras and additional lighting um folks can come learn about that at 6:30 to 7:30 at the community center um and with the the goal is to encourage more people to use

0:11:26the greenway and understand what kind of safety features there are coming uh this secondly with a report back on the economic development board meeting I attended we um discussed this coming new Venture training that our city is partnering with the Small Business

0:11:41Development Council um it's a really great opportunity um um folks will uh get to will need to apply to do it but their seats and you essentially get training 12 weeks of training two classes a week and they'll be held here at the city um city hall and the phone

0:12:02number to call if you're interested 510 215 4362 um and and I guess the second thing we we at the EDB we discussed um next this year's business ELO businesses of the year but we'll wait till the next meeting to unveil who those are thanks thank you and I wanted to announce that

0:12:25council member Lyman um and mayor proam ablon and City staff and I attended the mayor's conference last week in Lafayette it was held in their beautiful new library we all had Library Envy but I did want to encourage folks who happen to be in Lafayette or wanted to make the

0:12:42trip to go see this fabulous new completely modern library that has in it a room for doing homework and a teen area and a youth area and lots of computer technology so it was very impressive um and we didn't do a lot of business cu it was the holiday meeting but we did appoint a council member from

0:13:02sanone Dave Hudson to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District so Contra Casta county has a number of seats on the airboard and they're very important he'll represent our County's interest for the baaqmd and my final announcement is that I'm deeply grateful to Greg Lyman for

0:13:22playing in the 2009 charity be charity basketball game that was held for the rich uh great Richmond Interfaith program and I also wanted to acknowledge tonight our County Supervisor John Joya who's here with us who I understand also played and I'm sure you guys did really

0:13:40well unfortunately I was not able to make it to the game John actually uh well Nancy Skinner was part of the tip off and John actually sunk one of the only three-pointers on the day so he he uh he he scored quite well congratulations did it go in his basket or somebody else's oh

0:14:00I really appreciate it Mr Lyman so I believe that concludes all the announcements um for the meeting we don't have any presentations so the next agenda item is the oral Communications from the public and I um wondered if we have any speaker slips yes mayor we have

0:14:20four um speakers on items that are not on the agenda and two speaker slips for the reorganization okay so maybe we can um review the rules and our timing system for the public comment and we'll go ahead and open it up to hear for the items not on the agenda first the

0:14:38council has established three minutes per speaker you'll note when you're at the speaker Podium that when you begin to speak there will be a green light that comes up on the on the small Das here um there will be a yellow light that appears when you have one minute

0:14:51left and a red light will come on when your time is concluded um making time for the next person so with that our first speak speaker is Al Miller good evening council members uh before I start my remarks I will add to Mayor Potter's comments on the Lafayette Library it was their Lafayette Li uh

0:15:17lafayette's $40 million Library okay I came tonight to encourage uh to speak on item 5D uh the proposed joint meeting between you and the West County Unified School District I want to encourage you to adopt that uh resolution which will uh cause the meeting to be

0:15:40had my main reason for doing that is that I think individually and collectively you're a stronger governing body than the school board uh I believe that you know more about what the people of elero the parents of elero and the students of elero on need and want in

0:15:59their schools than our school board I'm sorry to have to say that but the district is so large uh even the board members that want to get around and learn the schools I don't believe it's a thing that they can physically achieve I guess there's no kind way to say this but in recent years I'm of the

0:16:22opinion that the school board has not collectively come together and crossed the me to we that every elected official to a board or an agency or a district must make they tend to bring their own individual political goals District goals neighborhood goals and they forget

0:16:46that they need to come together as a Wii and work for the best of the students you don't have that problem I might not agree with all of the decisions and the rationale that you use but being being exposed to it in the meetings that I attend I'm confident that when you do

0:17:02make a decision you'll make it work for the best interest of the city so I think that your wisdom your experience your knowledge of the city and your ability to make decisions and to require that decisions especially of this importance actually be made on fact rather than

0:17:20assumption or wab be is very very important uh you've shown leadership in this role before and I I ask that you continue it thank you thank you Alan stenk good evening council members uh Madame mayor Herms camp in elero is a little bit of paradise it's a place where you

0:17:46can go to escape your Urban landscape you can sit down step aside find a quiet thought find a quiet moment I'm here this evening to register my protest to a tower proposed by T-Mobile a cell phone tower destined to be quite an eyesore and a blight in the area the design supports significantly

0:18:07more capacity than needed to fit T-Mobile's needs both the height of the tower number of antennas and the location within the land the justification behind this may be read many different ways other diligent communities have seen this pattern with T-Mobile others have

0:18:26rejected this in areas where it's not been rejected the same and similar designs have been implemented lat to the regret of the community on these sites T-Mobile has established profit centers the additional capacity is there to meet the ability to rent space to other

0:18:45providers and other carriers I would ask the council that they remain diligent that they and the supporting boards help us keep an eye on this issue it's small in financial terms but in terms of the nature of the area and the few areas that are still available in Els where

0:19:06you can step aside um it'll be up for review in the next several weeks and I I'll thank you in advance for your diligence thank you thank you Philip Zimmerman good evening council members thank you for your public service um I handed in some uh full ERS of photos I'd be obliged if you'd leave

0:19:30through them uh I'm Philip Zimmerman for 10 years I've owned 8430 Buckingham in elero though I reside in Kensington for those 10 years I have been volunteering at Camp Herms and as an assistant scout master I am opposed to the location of T-Mobile's self cell tower that they

0:19:48want to build there it ought to be moved further back into the property better hidden from view please see the photos one these are some of the examples of failed efforts to disguise a cell tower as a pine tree the others are just honest cell towers that haven't tried to look like anything

0:20:07else they are all huge there are two reasons T-Mobile's design will probably fail to the first is scale T-Mobile wants to build a 77 ft Tower surrounded by an 8T fence 20 ft by 30 ft the tower is half again as high as the adjacent large trees it will call attention to

0:20:31itself it will be the height of an eight story building the second is the design the flat plate antennas on the tower are 5T tall and 1T wide there are 12 of them arrayed at each level eventually two levels of them extending out 8 ft from the pole the proposed Fake Plastic

0:20:52branches only extend a foot or two further out on Photo two this is T-Mobile's array of four antennas 1 half mile away they plan 24 for the camp Herms Tower they can't possibly hide all that hardware and a dish antenna too probably no matter what they do photo 3 this is going to look exactly

0:21:19like what it is and it is going to be built in the line of sight of everyone entering the camp or merely driving by it on Thor's B Road would they be allowed to plant a tree that was going to grow this big you were poised to tell them to go ahead and build one please make the move it back into

0:21:39the Quarry or deny this application T-Mobile wants to rent space on its Camp Herms Tower that's why they first asked to put it out on the Promontory over Arlington Park thinly disguised as a monster flag pole the better to appeal to prospective tenants I understand the

0:21:59planners told them to move it back 100 fet from the property line good move photo four it will still Loom over Arlington Park the scale is hard to show in a photo remember it's an eight-story building in height make them move at another 100 feet or so into the Quarry

0:22:18so that we who love Camp Herms don't have to look at it either considering the level of cell coverage we already enjoy in the neighborhood it's a stupid ugly project that will be a burden for us to look at thank you very much thank you Lauren bethards thank you my name is Loren

0:22:38bethards and um I own four homes in Elo one which may be within 300 feet of this proposed cell tower on Don Carroll I haven't gone out there with the tape measure but uh it may very well be within that range depending on where the cell tower if it is placed in Camp Herms

0:22:57is place um I have four children uh we have been using Camp Herms for at least the last seven years both uh as my son as a Cub Scout and as a now Boy Scout and we have used Arlington Park extensively during that same period um I would not allow my children to go up to the top of the

0:23:19mourer and play around the electrical towers and I don't see why this city should allow children who are playing at Camp Herms to to do so around a cell phone tower uh there may well be uh health risks um and I would support everything Mr Zimmerman has said about

0:23:39um T-Mobile's failure to disguise I you know unfortunately um as you drive along the 80 Corridor or drive up mourer you can see many examples of cell towers that do not blend in and that are blights um however in this particular location where the both the camp and the park are

0:24:03designed for use by children we need to do as Mr Zimmer said if we allow a tower at all to move it back into the Quarry where it will not be uh within range of the children where the children will not be playing around it and um where it will not be within range of the children

0:24:22using Arlington Park thank you thank you okay all right that concludes the um public comment period and we are now going to consider the consent calendar for tonight items 5 a through 5D move adoption of this consent calendar items 5A through 5D second all in favor I I opposed motion carries

0:24:52unanimously we have no public hearings tonight but we're going to move on to policy matters and this is the time when the Elso city council and the Redevelopment agency will reorganize so I'm going to call for the reorganization of the city council but first I would like to

0:25:10um summarize the accomplishments for the day for the year and also to thank the many people who have helped to make this such a great year it's truly been a great honor and privilege to serve as elser's mayor this year and during the year I've repres presented the city on a number of

0:25:29regional boards and commissions as have the other council members here I attended regularly the West County Mayors and supervisors meeting and also the Contra Costa M County mayor's conference and I must say and I'm pleased to report that ELO has fared much better in this recession than many

0:25:49of the other cities in our region and I attribute that to um a number of things uh our professional staff our generous residents and also to our well-informed elected officials and our appointees on these various boards and commissions and I particularly want to

0:26:07start this evening by thanking the residents of el Sero um for their remarkable support for local government and I can say firsthand that not all communities enjoy the support we have a high level of volunteerism and a lot of involvement and commitment to making

0:26:24elero a safer and more stainable community and I really appreciate that we've worked hard together this year during difficult times um fulfilling our regional commitments in the area of reducing crime addressing Regional Transportation issues and also in providing affordable

0:26:45housing and we've also conducted the business of the city with the highest standard of professionalism and with courtesy and I'm very proud to be part of this city government um I wanted to say that it's really easy when we meet here twice a month to get very caught up in the day-to-day running

0:27:06of the city and when I took the time to really recount what we accomplished this year it was quite an impressive list and I had a lot of help from staff and I am going to take the time to go through by each department to acknowledge um what we accomplished this year and the level

0:27:25of service that we've maintained and also to thank the staff who um helped make this such a great year so I wanted to first start with the city manager Scott Hannon for your leadership and Innovation during this challenging year we faced very difficult economic

0:27:41challenges and um quite a d disastrous state budget situation which had a very direct effect on our city budget we also survived several tragic losses in the elero family and you kept our team together you met our economic challenges and together we continue to provide an

0:28:03incredibly high level of service to the residents and I wanted to acknowledge Karen pinkis our city assistant City Manager for her constant support and particularly as lays on to the West Contra Costa Unified School District and to the arts and culture commission and

0:28:21for her role in lighting up the tower at City Hall which you may not realize I had amazing it support from James Chan and I wanted to let you know that this was the year I learned to send a text message and use a GPS navigation and I definitely could not have done it

0:28:40without James's help I'm also grateful to the City attorney Sky Woodruff and to the Redevelopment agency attorney Karen titiman who's not here tonight that's just a testament to her good work and um they have always provided excellent ellent advice very promptly and with the

0:29:00um highest level of professionalism so I appreciate that together the management and finance team developed a balanced budget with a 133% reserve and no staff layoffs our budget continues to win awards from the California Society of Municipal Finance officers and I deeply

0:29:20appreciate um finance manager Mary Dodge's work on this and all of her staff that are really um quite dedicated and often work behind the scenes to make that happen for us in the area of Redevelopment we worked uh the Redevelopment agency under the leadership of Bill Jones as well as

0:29:42the city work together on three really significant accomplishments and the first one was developing the new lease agreement for the Sero theater we turned it around on a very short time frame and we were successful in reopening it and we continue to reinvest in revitalizing

0:29:59that neighborhood in addition recently we negotiated um acquisition of land to develop Safeway at the former Target site and to um build that into a Transit oriented development with a 1acre parcel for housing for the city and earlier this year we approved the Hatland center

0:30:18for the Blind and the affordable housing project in the Del Norte area so I want to move on now to Public Safety and to acknowledge the Elso Police Department for continuing to provide an amazingly high level of service they have reduced the part one crimes this year by nearly 15% since the

0:30:38levels um in 2008 the department distributed 25 loans amounting to almost um $67,000 as part of our um implementing our video surveillance ordinance and that was financial assistance to small business and as you heard tonight our law enforcement Personnel have won

0:31:01awards both in the traffic and Commercial um enforcement areas and working together with the school district they established the third school resource officer at portala middle school and we continue to expand our commitment to school safety so I want to thank police chief um Scott

0:31:19Kirkland who's in the back the room and all his staff for that amazing effort so thank you the Els Sero fire department will by the end of the year have responded to an estimated 3,000 calls for service in Elso Kensington and Richmond and they have an average response time of 4

0:31:41minutes and 15 seconds and I thought that was really amazing if you calculate out 3,000 calls and there's only 365 days in the year this year we approved an uh unprecedented really a 4-year extension of the labor agreement which brought us to a 10-year term for our labor contract

0:32:01with the International Association firefighters local 1230 which I think this Council and staff can be very proud of and we also extended for five years our contract with the Kensington Fire Protection District in addition due to the hard work of Staff we received

0:32:21$320,000 in homeland security grants for firefighters we took delivery of type 3 fire engine for Station 72 with a new type 1 engine for station 71 on order and again um in reference to our outstanding Regional contribution and something maybe that residents are not aware of

0:32:45the elero fire department provided 33 days of mutual Aid response to Southern California during the 2009 Fire season while at the same time providing complete coverage here at home so I want to thank um our fire chief Lance Maples and his dedicated staff and on the on

0:33:05the whole Public Safety note I wanted to make note of the fact that the fire department and the police department in El Sero are very well coordinated and together they've provided key participation in the San Francisco Bay Regional interoperable communication systems which maybe everybody doesn't

0:33:25know what that is but that is something that grew out of um the 911 disaster in New York and what it does is it provides a coordinated Regional radio communication system for Alam and contracosta counties and is now being expanded to the whole Bay Area it's a really really important element and we

0:33:44have one of the radio towers um located our Police Department so we're a vital part of that Network so thank you again to all the public safety officers and I wanted to move on to to speak about community and um on the community and environmental front something that many of the

0:34:01residents are well aware of we rolled out our new recycling bins with the 64 gallon containers just this year and we also had a concerted um increased effort to focus on arts and culture which we're all very enthusiastic about and have had great um response from the public with

0:34:20art gallery exhibits here in the new city hall and our partnership with the San Francisco folk music club and the city's very first free folk music festival that was held at Windrush school we adopted a ordinance requiring mandatory retrofit of unsafe unreinforced masonry buildings in

0:34:41elero and we adopted the Loney Greenway plan and the Ada transition plan and for that and more I want to thank uh community development director Mitch oshinsky for all of his work and also for all of his staff because their efforts and including Redevelopment are what what is helping

0:35:04to make elero a more environmentally friendly and sustainable community so we also did a tremendous amount of work um in public works due to the generous passage of measure a that was the um one half cent sales tax to fund the repaving program this year we spent approximately $7 million to pave

0:35:28almost 50% of the street miles in this town in this one year alone so I think we've all uh observed that work going on and and now benefiting from moer Lane looks great by the way the new stripes are on it today we've updated all the pavement striping and markings to current

0:35:49standards replaced o in over 50 location rotting storm drains and culverts under roads and have installed new energy saving Street Lighting on S Pablo Avenue so I wanted to thank um Public Works director Jerry Brad and his staff who had an amazingly busy year and held up

0:36:09really well under all the pressure and last but not least our Recreation Department um as you may remember we allocated money from the measure ww and the East Bay Regional Park District funds and rebuilt the playground at Sero Vista Park um and the city council also approved

0:36:30the construction of a water park at the Aquatic Center and the Bruce King Memorial Dog Park which are anticipated to be open in the spring of 2010 and this is a very impressive statistic provided by the recreation department we provide after school services to preschoolers elementary

0:36:49school and middle school children 2400 students a week and um we do that in a safe and stimulating environment so I want to thank recreation department head Monica courts who the city council honored as the woman of the year for 2009 and to acknowledge all the recreation

0:37:08department staff so I will go on and I want to take this time to thank my city council members because together we've worked really great I think as a team and I just want to acknowledge some of the special attributes to despite our divers backgrounds and our differences of

0:37:28opinion that we have shown mutual respect and worked in a real Spirit of collaboration um council member Lyman provides an amazingly thorough review of all our agenda packet material and he was instrumental and developing the financial parameters for the new elero theater lease agreement so

0:37:48thank you council member ablon tirelessly represents El Cero's interest on Regional bodies such as the wick Tech abag and the AC Transit Advisory Board and she has done a lot of work this year on the Environmental Quality committee and I'm sure that we'll hear a little

0:38:05bit more about that in the next couple meetings council member and agency board chair Jones has provided excellent leadership for our Redevelopment agency and a very busy and challenging time for the Redevelopment agency you may remember we lost because of the state's

0:38:23takeaway um $1.7 million this year um also for your careful review of capital projects budgets always considering operation and maintenance cost on a wide range of proposals and for your work representing us on the West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management board and the Gilman um

0:38:41Sports field jpa and council member Chang um amazing commitment to sustainable communities Transit oriented development and for your call to action to make changes locally and on our person lives to begin to address global climate change so it's been really my pleasure to work with you

0:39:02all and I just have a couple more thank yous um to my family for supporting me in my public service my husband Phil Martine is here tonight and my daughter Julia my other daughter Lindsay she got so smart she's away at college so she's not here but she's taking her final

0:39:22exams and I'm thinking of her um also Al I wanted to thank my sister Debbie Potter and my dear friend Leticia Moore for always providing Sage advice and excellent Guidance with great insights and this is going to be the hardest thank you to my father George Potter he passed

0:39:50away on Friday December 4th and um I wanted to just say that he always was very supportive and he was a great campaign contributor he wore the t-shirt and he came to the parties and he took a great interest in Els Sero and the work that I do here so he had a very long and

0:40:10exciting life and we're going to miss him and I want to thank him for his belief he was a community college educator and he really believed that um with commitment hard work and education we all could achieve more and so thank dad I look forward very much to continuing our team work with our new

0:40:33mayor and I thank you all so much for being here as mayor proit great gives me great honor to be the one who gets to say thank you back to to Sandy I've known Sandy for quite a while now we originally served on the Planning Commission together uh a number of years

0:41:16ago along with Leticia Moore and we were on the Planning Commission that redid the general plan and it was a fantastic Planning Commission lots of uh uh wonderful people who work together tirelessly to get it done and Sandy was uh right there so over the the years

0:41:33since then I have seen Sandy develop into the Fantastic leader that she is today and I've been I've really enjoyed working with Sandy this last year especially in her role as mayor I think that she's done a fantastic job of uh making us all part of the process and uh

0:41:54making sure everybody's opin opinion was included fairly making sure uh everyone got acknowledged all the things that are so difficult really in in a job as mayor so I would like to thank Sandy for doing that and especially I would like to thank you Sandy for how you showed that

0:42:13you cared about people all people everyone involved in the process and I think that's what really makes a good mayor and I think you're an outstanding mayor I really do um and this was not a great year to be mayor this is a terrible year to be mayor and um you got

0:42:31as you as you mentioned some of the things we had all these horrible things happened to us and yet um you just carried on and did a you know kept kept the good things going and together we managed to solve these problems um and you were our leader and um I think for

0:42:49that we can be really grateful um the Sero theater you know that we lost our uh our tenant there and together we found another tenant and we uh are having a very good experience with that the target property Whoever thought we would actually end up owning a parcel of

0:43:08land out of the deal when we had you know no economic interest to begin with um but we did that under your leadership um the state took away all of our money yet we carried on um and that was under your leadership and uh what I think of is maybe the most special issue which

0:43:26you touched on but I don't think you gave adequate um um time to is the unreinforced masonary issue you brought that up um maybe several years ago as an important issue um and it wasn't I wouldn't I wouldn't really call it a popular issue because it meant the people had to reinforce their buildings

0:43:48which cost them money and was not a thing that somebody who would have to pay that money would particularly want to do but you held fast on that issue and you brought all the rest of us with you and I think our community owes you a very big uh gratitude for that because

0:44:07you were looking out for us uh all that was what you were doing and I actually would like to give you a clap if you don't mind for that particular you hung in there uh you know when it wasn't popular but it was the right thing to do and you did did that and you knew it and um it it will

0:44:29contribute to the health and safety of our community for a long time to come so I would like to thank you for all of the things that you've done and I would like I get the honor of presenting you with the plaque here um which is acknowledges your year as mayor for the city of El

0:44:46Sero hope you'll enjoy it I do thank you so much and also a bouquet of FL hours well it has been a wonderful year wow thank you for those kind words we have now a procedure which is for the clerk to take over I declare the offices of Mayor and mayor proam vacant and call for

0:45:21nominations for office of Mayor I nominate Council member abelon for the office of Mayor second okay um all in favor of closing nominations indicate by saying I I I uh no NOS all those in favor of selecting council member ablon as mayor I'm sorry mayor pm abon has been selected

0:45:48mayor of the city of El Sero oh you got to take do I take take over I you so hard every time do it thank you well now we need to move on and uh select a um mayor proam uh are there any nominations I nominate council member an Chang for office of Mayor Pro proem second any other nominations I

0:46:20move the nominations be closed second all in favor of closing nominations I I okay all in favor of council member Chang becoming mayor protim of the city of elero i i i any knows unanimous congratulations okay now we go to the next page so um this is where I um get to

0:46:55make my remark marks and I'd like actually like to start out by introducing my family and I have written down all their names so that I don't get it wrong and I don't leave anyone out and I uh we'll start with um my oldest daughter Rachel abon yes supposed to stand Rachel thank

0:47:13you and uh my son Joel my granddaughter Sophia seven years old and uh then I would like to acknowledge my other uh children and spouses who were unable to be here my uh daughter Ruthie and her husband Renee Olivas my uh I have two children who are in college now Miriam

0:47:36who's a graduate student at the University of Oregon Eugene and Sarah who's a sophore at the University of California at Davis and uh last but not least I'd like to um introduce my husband Howard ablon who uh Who U puts up with my never being around to make dinner and and who is also a

0:48:02former mayor of the city and then I would like to introduce uh some friends and I'm not sure if I see you all so if I if I haven't acknowledged you please excuse me um first of all uh Joan Carpenter and Leticia Moore supervisor John Joya Judy Rogers and uh I think I see three people

0:48:39from the Environmental Quality committee mildre Dandridge Ron inlan and uh Rebecca benini and I oh and I see another one Ellen thank you and I don't know if I've missed anyone else but I would like to thank you all for coming and for uh being my friend and for the people on the

0:49:09Environmental Quality committee I would especially like to thank you all for all of the fine work you're doing and I look forward to working with you uh to do some more things so thank you um as I see it this next year will be a very challenging one for the city of elero

0:49:27we're going to be um trying to figure out how to B provide the best service that we can in our city while we look at the state which we all know will actually provide less funding um so as bad as it was this last year I think we can all expect that anything from that

0:49:47comes from the state will be less not more um and um I have a great deal of confidence that um with the leadership of this city with our staff who does such a fine job that we're going to be able to to get a good job done but what I really see this upcoming year as is a

0:50:08year of focusing on what I'm thinking of a sustainability uh we're going to have to make choices and Implement policies that will help us sustain critical Services provided to the city by the city to both our residents and our businesses this will all be done in a

0:50:29time when there will be less money um but we have to do more than that as I see it we have to also adopt and Implement policies that reflect our commitment to sustaining the environment and our future if you've been reading the newspaper uh recently you can see

0:50:47that um climate protection has been one of the um major themes of the newspapers the last few days and um we and El cero are well positioned to do our part to make that happen but we're going to have to do it together and it's not just that the city staff has to do it it's that

0:51:07our whole Community has to get involved because without that it isn't going to happen the only 2% of our uh footprint is caused by city government the rest is caused by our residents and our businesses and what we can do to help them is to educate them them and provide

0:51:26me the mechanisms such as Recycling and other things that will enable them to do the right thing and to succeed and I think that by working together um Council staff residents and businesses we can make it happen even in this very difficult time of the next year um in

0:51:50the next few weeks I look forward to bringing back several resolutions for your consider eration one on sustainability and one more specifically on healthy living and uh these documents will build on work that we've already accomplished in the city and work that's

0:52:07in progress and work to still be done so I look forward to working with all members of the council with staff and with our community to making this a really good year a very sustainable year uh in the next year in the city of elero thank you now it's my uh job to announce that

0:52:35everybody is invited to stay for Refreshments following the reorganization of the Redevelopment agency and so I call for the re organization of that Redevelopment agency declare the offices of chair and vice chair vacant calling for nominations for the office of chair of

0:52:55the Redevelopment agency I nominate Bill Jones for the office of chair I'm sorry I did that wrong I nominate Sandy Potter we're so used to be you being the chair bill I did call for any further nominations if no further nominations I move the nominations be closed

0:53:18second all in favor of closing nominations indicate by saying I I motion carries all those in favor of selecting agency member Potter as chair indicate by saying I I opposed motion carries agency member Potter has been selected chair of the Redevelopment [Applause]

0:53:44agency okay so we'll Now call for the nominations for the vice chair of the Redevelopment agency I move that uh Council ccil member Lyman or agency member Lyman uh be nominated for vice chair second um is there a motion to close the nominations if no for the nominations I

0:54:09would move that nominations be closed second all those in favor of selecting agency member lineman as the vice chair please indicate by saying I I um that carries unanimously so congratulations Mr Lyman I look forward to working with you next year I know why this is always so

0:54:34difficult I would like to ask if there are any other members of the council Redevelopment agency who' like to make comments or acknowledge friends and family here tonight I'll go ahead um I wanted to thank all my co-council members for making this a really wonderful learning

0:54:50year for me um was definitely a uh a a challenge to think about doing all of this and I think you all have made it very easy and enjoyable and I've learned a ton from all of you as well as staff I think um all your great work had was the reason why I was convinced to throw my

0:55:08hat into specifically just continue the support of all the great work you do and and thank the community as well for being in as involved as everyone is um I think we have very um Rich Community full of great folks and committed people and last but not least I'd like to thank my

0:55:27husband Wy Osborne um for putting up with all of of my Council uh Civic life in the first year of our marriage um I think it's been a very a unique one but also very fun and I thank you for [Applause] that I would I I I'd like to to thank uh the community for giving me a uh a second

0:55:58term in in uh service it's it's a real pleasure to uh represent this community and uh try to make decisions for the betterment uh of all of us um this this this year is starting out uh or this term I should say my second starting out to be a little tougher than

0:56:22the than the first four years but um I I think the uh the community believe it or not I feel is in a strong position to get through this uh we have a lot of strong people in town we have a lot of enthusiastic people we are still getting a lot of uh volunteers that want us uh

0:56:43to serve on our commissions and committees and we still have people moving into town saying how they really like it and uh that's just through a lot of hard work of previous previous councils previous uh boards and commissions um it has been it hasn't been it it hasn't been just overnight

0:57:04it's been a process that probably started 10 15 years ago we're getting to and we're coming to some real good points and I think we're working hard to keep it there the last thing we want to do is uh slip back and and I don't think so I think we have um just a good

0:57:22community in which to deal with that so I'm looking forward to not only next year but years ahead thank you thank you well I'd like to thank um a lot of people but most of them are those that are sitting out here in the audience or at home watching us uh thank the

0:57:41residents of Els Sero for supporting us um in this time this time this tough economic time uh this year went by really quickly and uh we did a lot of things as as the mayor um highlighted earlier and we had a lot of tragic things that happened in the last year so

0:58:02it's been a a long year that went by really quickly and that was because of all the support uh from residents and friends and family so I I really appreciate all the support we've gotten including everyone sitting up here on the Das so thank you okay with that we will adjourn the

0:58:19city council meeting and I would like to do so in honor in honor of George B Potter father of um oh we have speaker slips I'm sorry on this agenda item on this which agend it on adjournment reorganization on the reorganization oh it's back okay do you want to go ahead and call those we have

0:58:39two speakers John Joya oh Ron egerman I want to follow him [Laughter] anyway hi I'm uh Ron igerman uh I'm the chairperson of the Environmental Quality committee and uh I'm really here to congratulate all of you and congratulate uh mayor Potter for doing such an

0:59:07awesome job uh and to really uh wish uh Janet well in filling the shoes that uh Sandy has left in leading the city I had um some words prepared and then one of our very active community members Linda SN who's ill and couldn't be here sent me an email that says so much I'm just

0:59:29going to read it very briefly we affectionately refer to her as our chicken lady and um you'll be hearing more about this and and it may seem like sort of a silly little thing but it it's so meaningful and the process is so uh so wonderful and so important so anyway

0:59:48this is uh from uh Linda I met Janet for the first time in May of this year I immediately knew she was was a woman of vision and competence my request that she Aid in expanding the ordinance to allow for greater food production and sustainability by encouraging backyard

1:00:05chickens grew into a meaningful collaboration at a time when many people are being hit by the economic Collapse by unemployment and by hunger she Rose to the occasion to encourage and ensure the survival and well-being of many it takes an intelligent insightful and

1:00:24extremely competent individual to be able to do that instead of to impede survival and progress so often found in government and bureaucracies she instead epitomizes a new breed of governing which in turn which in true States person fashion meets the needs of the people thank you

1:00:44so much I am encouraged that meaningful and Progressive change is possible and because she does her part so well I will continue to do my part too end of her statement let me also say that this is a woman who started out with a very small agenda who's now organized I think two or 3,000 donations

1:01:07of fruit trees and she is Distributing them and this is the kind of Citizen involvement that starts from you up there that goes through your commissions to the people and I congratulate you all and wish uh mayor Aon wonderful new year thank you next speaker supervisor

1:01:33Joya good evening mayor ablon um I'm John Joy I live in Richmond and I represent El Sero and much of West County On The Board of Supervisors and I just I'll be very brief because I know there's a reception I just wanted to say a few words you know um May former mayor

1:01:49Potter was talking about how ELO residents are very supportive of local government and I think you know in large part that's due to your integrity and hard work I I mean really this Council and there's been a tradition in Els Sero of really being able to um Foster Civic

1:02:07involvement and I think you do that so well and that's exactly why people are so involved and I and I wanted to congratulate um Janet it seems Janet every time you become the um mayor of El I become chair of the Board of Supervisors I'll be chair next year I think the last time we were on the same

1:02:22cycles and it's always a pleasure working with you I mean you represent the city so well I know we've had a chance to work on many Regional um bodies together and I think it's so important especially um you know with all the day-to-day work that all of you do it's important to also tie it into

1:02:37the larger Regional effort and Sandy your leadership um as mayor has been great and I think it's it's great that we have a a good relationship between the city of Els Sero and the county and we want to continue that partnership what Sandy didn't say about Greg he also

1:02:51has a lot of uh great hustle on the basketball court you know know keeping up with him is hard and um and all of you I mean have actually having um a mix of your new uh mayor and mayor protm be an experienced member of the council through these difficult times I think is

1:03:05really important and is is going to be very helpful and also having new blood with uh council member Chang is also great sort of you know mixes the two and that's the best of democracy it's great having a gouto like Bill too so and uh you know I all of by the way bill um I

1:03:20was when I was on the basketball court on Saturday and and talking to a couple School talking to the school board member your passionate speech on on school issues was um it's gone all around West County you're very passionate speech on behalf of Els Sero uh to the school

1:03:37board I wasn't there to hear it but it sounded was like it was great so um I so I just really want to express acknowledgement of our of our great working relationship and and obviously that's going to continue I have no doubt and thanking you for all of your hard

1:03:50work our board reorganization is going to be on um Tuesday uh January 12th at Richmond council chambers you all you all um will or have gotten invitations to that and um so again look forward to another great year thanks thank you um are there any other speakers no okay

1:04:08thank you with that we will adjourn and um I would like to do so in memory of George B Potter um uh father of Mayor Sandy Potter you will always be a mayor uh who passed away at age 89 as was stated earlier on December the 4th 2009 he was a US Air Force World War II

1:04:33veteran and a longtime Community College educator and he had a long and amazing life and will be dearly missed and um I think all of our um thoughts are with you um Sandy uh as you go through this period of time so thank you he so