Concurrent City Council and Redevelopment Agency Meeting April 5, 2010

0:00:02good evening welcome to the El Cerrito city council I'd like to start with roll call please councilmember Lyman here councilmember Jones councilmember Potter potem Chang is absent and mayor Potter I mean I'm Excuse me mayor Abelson present that's some habits die hard

0:00:24okay with that we will go to the Pledge of Allegiance which uh I will lead I 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 the next item on the agenda is Council

0:00:55and staff Communications and um I think I'll go ahead and start I have a number of items this time and so I will start with them and um first I would like to um mention some of the things that I attended recently on behalf of the city first of all I attended the national

0:01:27women's History Month celebration sponsored by Contra Costa College and the um local branch of the AAUW and that was held on March 24th and as you might remember our honoree is was Donna Hauser who represented the city of El Cerrito and it was a well-attended event and um

0:01:56very happy to see her we see that very much deserved award I also attended the open house for Planned Parenthood which has recently opened an office at El Cerrito Plaza in El Cerrito and I got a tour of the facility it's a very nice facility and they are already

0:02:21servicing a number of clients so I think it's going to do well and it's very good to see them doing so well already thank you then I also attended the East Bay Green Corridor steering committee meeting on March 31st right here at City Hall and um this is a group

0:02:47of cities that are working together towards green principles and working in a Cooperative ways which I also like to see so that was that was good um then I wanted to mention that um the Bruce King dog park will be opening and there will be a grand opening celebration on Saturday April 17th if

0:03:12anyone is interested in coming and it is along the ilani greenway between Blake Street and Potrero Avenue and you can already tell that it's there there's a fenced area in fact there are two of them one for large dogs and one for small dogs and we will have a number of

0:03:32special activities and um including there will be some members of the arf's pet hug pack which are therapy dogs here and there will be a special presentation by Dr Ian Dunbar at 2 pm the celebration itself is from one to three so I hope that if you have some time on April 17th that you will join us

0:03:55for that event and um with that I will let the next person no nothing we have nothing I'm really pleased to announce that there's a new art show upstairs on the second floor of the city hall and that there well this is a very special exhibit because the arts and culture

0:04:18commission invited the El Cerrito City staff to submit artwork in the same manner that they usually do with other artists and there's going to be a reception this Thursday night it is April 8th from 6 30 to 8 30. here at City Hall and there'll be refreshments and I just wanted to point

0:04:38out because I see some of the artists here today that art is representing the many departments in the city Environmental Services the fire department the police department planning Public Works Recreation Redevelopment and Community Development that's pretty much all the

0:04:56Departments that we have and The Works include a very wide range of media very interesting there's a quilt there's some painting some drawings some photography and some recycled arts and crafts and I also wanted everyone to mark their calendar for Saturday April 24th that's when the

0:05:16city as is traditional will be celebrating Earth day and we will again for the second year have the arts and crafts table so we can all be creative with the found objects that we're Recycling and reusing so I'm sure that the mayor will have more to say about that at our next meeting

0:05:35Bill thank you yes I'd like to uh I have a few items here one is I was traveling down cutting and at cutting and Junction the the intersection saw four residents that were actually tending to the Garden that's in that intersection the the triangle there and if I wasn't late for where I was

0:06:00supposed to go I was going to stop and ask who they were and when I came back they were gone so whoever you are thank you very much it was very nice it's looking it's looking very nice it's got California poppies in there amongst other things so it's pretty good uh

0:06:16attended last Thursday night at Arlington park there was a public workshop for traffic management our traffic management study for the whole city and I encourage people to get involved if you can't go to a workshop Now's the Time to write City staff about suggestions you have on maybe the hot

0:06:38buttons or the areas you feel needed attention on the traffic some the city has control of others such as San Pablo Avenue we have to work through Caltrans but now's the time the council had made it a goal two years ago to study traffic throughout the city in part because of

0:06:59so many comments coming in about whether people are speeding or stopping or not stopping or whatever this Council decided uh to go with a what we call a neighborhood study program so Now's the Time and uh if if you see a workshop in your area and you have the time please

0:07:19show up it's a good interactive one and the one up in Arlington uh was was well attended Saturday I went to the spring egg hunt and it looked like another record uh record group and as as scheduled the event was over in about four minutes there must have been three 400 kids

0:07:43there and the candy was vacuumed up with within a very short period of time and it was a great uh great time it's kind of interesting if you've never been there you should try to get there and get there about a half hour early because the anticipation builds up for

0:07:59this three-minute event I mean it's uh it's amazing and a lot of smiling faces so that was good and finally I just want to uh here it is I want to notify just ask you that if you're interested to take a look at one of the rate increases the PG e is proposing and it's proposing a substantial

0:08:23increase in rates for those people who don't use a lot of energy or have been uh saving energy for us so that the people who do use a lot of energy aren't charged as much and that's all I'll say please read it make up your own mind but it's coming so thank you and fill out your census form and turn

0:08:52it in as soon as possible the sooner you turn it in the less work it's going to create for um the census workers who will go around door to door for those folks who haven't turned it in and let me tell you why it's so important if you don't already know and that's because the amount of

0:09:14money we receive at the local level from the federal government on various programs is dependent upon what our Census count is and so it's really important to us at a local level to be counted and we want everybody counted because that'll help us in the future over the next 10-year period it's really

0:09:36really important if you have any questions about it among other things you can come to City Hall and obtain information there will be a sense Assistance Center here open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 A.M to 2 p.m and on Thursdays between 11 to 4 11 A.M to 4

0:10:03P.M I'm going to re repeat those times and it would be right here in City Hall Tuesday through Wednesday 9 A.M to 2 p.m and on Thursday from 11 A.M to 4 P.M and help us get counted help us receive those services that our residents so very much need and are there any staff

0:10:27announcements okay hearing none then we'll move on to the next item on the agenda which is oral Communications from the public are there any we have one General comment on the consent calendar it's James Vaughn please note that we have a speaker timer up here and the council's allowed a

0:10:56three minutes per speaker thank you madam clerk my name is Jamie Vaughn and I'm uh speaking on the matter of it was carried over him from the uh last hearing on the um the alarm system ordinance and I was here and uh I'm basically following up with councilman Lyman and

0:11:18councilman Jones is a couple comments he made and um back in 1995 I was a uh appointed by the governor and Department of Justice to uh to develop a model alarm ordinance and um my concern when I heard testimony um the last council meeting that uh you know there was there was a there was

0:11:45a vagueness of actually what constantly what what actually is an alarm okay and um you know is it a uh you know a premise alarm is it a you know entry alarm is it a uh uh um you know sometimes some type of disturbance Etc and uh so that was not really kind of clarified

0:12:07as to what constitutes an alarm I know that the council was you know taking testimony as far as uh wavering uh like emergency alarms Panic alarms Etc and that does those those are the things that we've kind of struggled with uh uh back in 1995 at the governor's level

0:12:26and the concern I have is being being a resident El Cerrito is that I want to ensure in the ordinance that every single alarm company that does business here in El Cerrito is a licensed business and uh you know if they if they're using for example like Cox Cable you know uses

0:12:46infinite contracts I want to make sure that every single independent contractor that installs maintains Services alarms has a business license El Cerrito I'm also very concerned about alarm dealers they uh customers here in El Cerrito enter into uh contracts one year two years three

0:13:08years five years and um uh but they they don't really necessarily have a total control over the uh the alarm system per se it could be a a problem in the circuits it could be a telephony problem communication back to the uh the Central Station what have you so they can be they can be put on a

0:13:32disconnect or non-response but they're still obligated to under contract to still pay a monthly fee of 25 35 or 45 dollars that's a concern I have um uh another concern I have is that um is on you know is is how um the alarms are communicated to the uh El Cerrito Police Department

0:14:00I work successfully in the past okay you know being an attorney with County council with other counties where uh major alarm companies have installed some type of a monitoring system in a police department okay so the police dispatcher can actually Direct you know the responding officer is a

0:14:21back door front door side door upstairs window what have you okay right now uh we don't have that luxury here okay we just roll cops to the site that's it okay so they stand there down stand down there for an hour two hours and we actually kind of put them in kind of

0:14:38Harm's Way because they don't know where the alarm is coming from so that's something you know that we may want to consider this has concluded Please wrap up a big pardon your three minutes has concluded I'll I'll file a uh a report uh for the record then yeah thank you

0:14:56thank you no more speakers at this time until the public hearing at this time then we will move on to item number four which is presentations the first presentation is um for West County wins and it's a proclamation and the first thing I would like for us to do is to uh if we're

0:15:16willing is to approve a proclamation commending all members of the West County winds for their dedication to providing a venue for local residents to make satisfying music and for playing their fine music for the greater El Cerrito Community for the past 25 years

0:15:34I move approval of the Proclamation acknowledging West County wins item 4A second okay any discussion all in favor please say aye aye any opposition or abstention motion carries unanimously with that I'm um would you like to do a presentation well I'd just like to thank the city

0:15:57council mayor Abelson for recognizing West County wins and our contribution to the community my name is Sue Crum I'm the director of the group at the moment and this is Cherry normington she's our manager of our group and we have our concert coming up celebrating our 25th

0:16:11anniversary on Sunday May 23rd at the El Cerrito Performing Arts Theater and it's no free admission open to the public at 3 pm thank you thank you for coming congratulations thank you thank you and we do have a um thank you okay okay thank you and um uh to note

0:16:56um interesting history I think I remember the beginnings of this organization um when um I had um an experience at El Cerrito High School where they were trying to get people who were associated with the school to come and join this musical group and I actually did briefly but I wasn't uh I

0:17:17didn't really remember how to play My flute well enough to continue so but I'd like to thank you for uh for providing the community with this outstanding resource thank you okay so the next item is a is the California Department of Consumer Affairs and we have a presentation

0:17:41of the department Mission and functions by Michael Lafferty the Outreach manager thank you thank you mayor Appleton Abelson and members of the city council it's a truly a privilege and an honor to be here in front of the city of El Cerrito and members of the public as you

0:18:00mentioned my name is Michael Lafferty and I'm the Outreach manager for the California Department of Consumer Affairs one of my colleagues here is Joaquin Murphy who has we have an office in Hayward so it's local for many of the constituents in your community and

0:18:14slightly Beyond I'd like to talk to you today about the California Department of Consumer Affairs who we are and what we do and a couple of programs that we have available that maybe you and your constituents would be interested in almost all the services that the

0:18:28Department of Consumer Affairs offers are free to the public and this is an opportunity to present this information to you and the great diverse city of El Cerrito in hopes that we can assist consumers to be better educated as consumers tomorrow I'm sorry can you assist me

0:19:01I just press the button oh I don't know I can hear all right I know your time is valuable so I'll begin the presentation in hopes that maybe it'll proceed so the Department of Consumer Affairs is made up of approximately 35 boards and bureaus contractor State Licensing Board

0:19:22Bureau of Automotive Repair the Dental Board the veterinarians board guide dogs for the blind the list goes on and on if you get your hair cut if you get your car repaired if you um I have a swimming pool put in if you hire a licensed security guard to install an alarm in your house or your

0:19:46business and if you take your car if you take your pet to the veterinarians these and over a hundred other professions and businesses are licensed by the California Department of Consumer Affairs and what that means to the public is that these people passed a prescribed test they met minimum

0:20:03standards they're licensed and in some cases depending upon the industry they might be bonded for government it means that they uh they they follow city ordinances they're supposed to meet minimum standards for code and most importantly they pay their fair share of the taxes and and and

0:20:22workers comp that goes into the city that provides the resources that the city council and the government supports there's more than two two million licenses in California and um so forgive me I'm um I received it from you but I didn't receive the the technique

0:20:45so I want to talk to you about the campaign called take charge California be smart be safe be heard this is a campaign to educate consumers about how to be smart in the California Marketplace consumers that don't have these resources and don't have these skills to be Savvy consumers are at risk

0:21:04they're at risk for scam artists they're at risk for not receiving the proper products and services that they attempt to buy and purchase they're at risk financially from uh from from people that want to take their money and and and and other types of uh scams that

0:21:20that hurt them and their family and their neighbors and so at our website take chargecalifornia.ca.gov we have tons of resources for the public to help them learn how to be a smart consumer everything from how to plan a budget in your family how to maintain that budget

0:21:36how to be a good consumer how to shop for products and services looking for warranty looking for calorie content on products and services that are healthy we have over a hundred free services as an example where they consumers can go to this website and learn about the free

0:21:51services that many of the services are offered by city and county and state and federal organizations and all consumers have to do is to know about it as an example many of the utility companies have as might have alluded to here a fee schedules but some of these utility

0:22:07companies many of them offer low discounts to seniors and people who have fixed incomes and so on our website we have all these kinds of services for consumers we have over a hundred different kinds of scams the definitions of scams how to how they're perpetrated

0:22:24against consumers in the public what they look like in terms of their name and where to go most importantly for help when they do get caught up in these scams so these and many many others are on our website at take charge and that provides consumers with information to be a smart

0:22:39consumer being a safe consumer means being a role model for your family and friends you know in today's age it's it's no longer um practical to hire somebody off the street who you don't know who you don't know is licensed or you don't know what their background is you could be

0:23:00bringing in felons into your home you could be bringing in unlicensed people that are not competent that don't prescribe to the standards of the city or the state for repairs and you put your family and your and your neighbors at risk so the California Department of

0:23:13Consumer Affairs practices and gives information to Consumers that tells them ask for the license ask for the license ask to see it the vast majority of men and women in the industry are licensed and competent they're they provide a fair and reasonable product and services they

0:23:32want to do a good job it's only those few actors that that try to take advantage so we have to protect our families and our citizens by giving them tools and those tools are easy access to look up a license you know the day the day of of being challenged to find if

0:23:48someone's license is gone you can go to our website you can call our 800 number you can write to us you can email us there's a number of ways you can look up businesses by name by address by by their license number we want to provide resources to people and so being a safe

0:24:07consumer means being vigilant knowing what scams are avoiding them teaching their family and friends to how to avoid them and things like that finally being a herd consumer is all about the power of your voice we hear these words empowerment but to be an empowered consumer means to use the

0:24:26power of your voice and so at the Department of Consumer Affairs we try to teach consumers to use the power of the voice to use it individually and to use it collectively many consumers don't know how to write a demand letter or don't know how to approach a business

0:24:42and to say you need to correct a problem and a simple tool is as just giving someone these simple tools to say what the expected and The observed was to go back to a business and say this is what I expected this is what I got most men and women in the business World know

0:25:00that competition is is very stiff and that fixing a problem at the earliest level means a repeat customer so we teach techniques to Consumers and to businesses how to be heard and these are all very practical easy to learn very accessible skills at our take charge website

0:25:19the other program that I briefly mentioned was our unlicensed activity program and it is a program to teach people to physically ask for that license so and in many cultures we know that people are afraid to ask people in the positions of Authority or government

0:25:34and we need to overcome that and we need to teach people that people that have a license they want to show their license because they work really hard for that license and so it could be as simple as going up if you go to a nightclub or you go to a an event that's that's that's

0:25:49got a lot of traffic a lot of times they're required to have security guards those people are required to be licensed and people don't know that so you ask to see their license and and that tells you that they're licensed that the California Department knows who they are

0:26:05that they have to go through prescribed training and those types of things and all these things protect consumers you know the economy is tough in California and right now we're losing over 140 billion dollars a year because people aren't licensed they're not paying their

0:26:21fair share to the cities and state and the unfortunate thing is people think consumers think that they go to unlicensed people because it's they get a good deal they get a discount or because it's a friend of a friend or because they'll do just a good a job but

0:26:35at the Department of Consumer Affairs we found out that by and large that's not true sometimes people jobs have to be done over and over again it costs people time and money it's not done right many times you can't see the problem because it's hidden behind a wall or behind a

0:26:51fender or behind something else people are at risk the unfortunate thing is people die we have horrendous horrendous War stories about people being injected in their buttocks and in their face with cooking oil people getting chiropractor adjustments and their only training was

0:27:07a training class of a massage class in 1949. these are true stories and why do people go to these things you know just because we're all trusting Souls but we have to teach our family and our friends in our community to ask to see the license to only trust professionals and

0:27:23that's not to say that every professional will do a competent job but you're better off going to a licensed professional than not so my final closing statement to you is that the Department of Consumer Affairs has over almost 200 Publications many of them are in multiple languages they're

0:27:41almost all free we have staff that go out in presentations we give senior we go to senior centers we're very active with the library we're very active with with other cities and communities and we want to be a part of El Cerrito community and to provide these resources

0:27:56we have a toll-free number it's 800-952-5210 where we give all sorts of information it's all free Monday through Friday and so my message to you today is to ask for someone in the city government in El Cerrito for a point of contact where I can work with that person to share the resources with city

0:28:17government and your great citizens of El Cerrito I'll take any questions thank you very much thank you Karen can you bring up the two slides more just so everybody can see the phone number thank you thank you so much I had a question does your uh is your department

0:28:41and watch over copper the the copper controversy the uh stealing of copper and then uh selling it to there was a bill before the the legislature uh must have been two years now that was trying to uh get some handle on the selling and distribution of copper legal versus illegal and it it

0:29:08didn't go anyplace and I was just wondering if you know if there's going to be any more effort on that it continues copper and other metals are being taken daily from city parks and and private residents and private businesses and I was just wondering if you knew about that yeah same thing with

0:29:25cattle converters for their for their precious metals I am not familiar with it but I will research it and I will get back to your office on that matter appreciate it thank you the other side okay no I just want to thank you for coming out to El Cerrito and thank you

0:29:42for all that you do for the people of California great I look forward to maybe a contact I can talk to someone in city government and and uh and share some resources okay great thank you very much we will get you one thank you before we go on I'd just like to do a check uh we're not

0:30:00sure that the volume in this room is quite what it usually is um is there some way we can check that pardon needs to go okay everyone's sensing the same thing I think can you hear us now maybe we could just do a uh check Karen could you be the guinea pig and I've got my go to that

0:30:25mic and see what happens hello that's pretty low yeah it's not loud hello is that better thank you very much okay with that we will move on to the next item on the agenda which is adoption of the consent calendar and um the um before we move along any further on that I would

0:31:02just like for purposes of identification to go to item 5C and um introduce it by title for the record and five C would establish the major a swim center parcel tax rate and staff is asking for the city council's approval by title and waiving of any further reading of an ordinance of the city of

0:31:30El Cerrito setting a reduced tax rate only for fiscal year 2010-11 for the special tax imposed pursuant to chapter 4.56 of the El Cerrito municipal code and with that we are considering the consent calendar items five five A through five f and anyone on the council like to pull

0:31:58an item I'd like to pull 5B so that um our speaker could finish his suggestions on the alarm system ordinance could be some information that we want to consider before taking final action my understanding of the procedure is that if you wanted to do that you would

0:32:19do so in a public comment on items not on the agenda so I'm not sure what you're trying to do I'm asking to have five be pulled right so that we can discuss it further we can discuss it further okay okay that's what I'm oh that's what you're trying to do okay so are there any other items

0:32:38items to have a comment 5B um why don't we see if there are any other items first any other items no okay is there a motion for the other items well I just wanted to have an opportunity to articulate my concern about pulling it or I don't mind having further discussion but the speaker indicates he

0:32:57was President the last last council meeting when we had more flexibility to make changes to the ordinance language we're now on a second read and we have in perhaps the City attorney can speak to the limitations on what kind of changes could be made at this point

0:33:13it just concerns me a bit if the council wanted to discuss it further and open it for further comment from the public any changes that were made would require that the ordinance be reintroduced which means it would have to come back for another council meeting for before

0:33:28approval okay so is there a motion to approve the other items I move approval of the consent calendars item five a through and items five C through five f is their second second all in favor please say aye aye any opposition or abstention motion carries unanimously with that we'll go

0:33:53to item five b which is the Alarm Systems ordinance oh yeah I there was just some items that have come up there's a reason why we have a second reading and that's uh to see if there is any changes before we formally approve uh and I would like to hear actually I

0:34:19think the gentleman had uh just a couple more comments to make and to see if there is anything that we want to consider to either include or or change in the ordinance there may not be but I I just want a full I guess my question is opening it to public comment at this

0:34:42time does that require us to carry it over to the next meeting or are we limited to having a discussion amongst the council at this time I'll ask the question slightly differently procedurally last time we did have to have a motion to open and close the hearing would we in order to

0:35:01get public comment need to to do those procedures again um and and then this the second half of the question is if we don't take any changes tonight would this constitute the second reading and therefore the ordinance would go into effect to take them in reverse order if you

0:35:19make no changes you can go ahead and adopt the ordinance tonight as presented um there's nothing that precludes the council from hearing additional comments um from the public on this although it was not advertised as a public hearing the legal public hearing requirement was

0:35:35satisfied the council might want to consider whether or not other members of the public may have been just discouraged from coming to speak on the item since they didn't might have assumed that there was no opportunity to speak on it but ultimately the council there's nothing that precludes the

0:35:51council from receiving additional public comment if that's your desire excuse me I have a procedural question then what's the purpose of a second reading if the public can't comment or we can't comment right so I don't and and it was advertised as a second meeting so I I

0:36:10personally don't see where the public would be uh discouraged from coming and making comments it's possible that some people may may look at the consent calendar and believe that as a result of that that there isn't a place for the public to speak on an item that's not necessarily the case

0:36:28but I'm just saying that that is a possibility which is only to say that you know the council might want to consider whether or not they wanted other people to have an opportunity to speak on the item as well before making a final decision on it but nothing precludes you from from hearing from the

0:36:44public about it again if that's the desire of the council okay thank you so I would like if we can get on with this I would like to proceed hear comments any comments from the the public then we can discuss it if need be and then get on with a vote I think that's a fine as long as the

0:37:08additional testimony is held the three minutes that'd be fine okay I would appreciate if the speaker would indicate the um reason why the testimony couldn't be given at our last meeting uh listen to the uh hearing I was uh out of state and uh so I apologize but I did

0:37:29you know uh listen to uh via uh the internet and I I just raised these uh issues okay just for consideration uh because just because of the fact I had worked on this one just procedurally if if we're getting into your uh comment why don't we officially um ask for you for public comment on

0:37:49this item and you would be the first speaker and then um so would you fill out a speaker's slip please after you've had a chance to speak thank you yeah and then um we'll go ahead and start timing it when our city clerk is ready I I was in trial last week sometimes okay okay um okay so

0:38:12go ahead I I had to listen in because because again I was traveling uh at the time of the uh when this first came up and uh my interest because again being a resident El Cerrito and having knowledge of this from 1995 when I when I was uh attorney with County Council I've been appointed

0:38:29by the governor's office to develop a model alarm ordinance and uh and failed in a committee and uh and uh councilman Lyman and councilman Jones raised up a couple interesting questions that the ordinance right now and I think you know an illustrator PD did a very

0:38:47very good job working with the industry to try to establish you know some could come to some consensus but there wasn't enough teeth in it to protect the resonance as far as having when there's alarm system failures there's uh circuitry problems there's sensor failures Etc that the um that the

0:39:08uh the residence of you know and the consumers will be punished more aggressively and the alarm dealers and the companies who are actually doing business here okay don't suffer any penalty and I have some I have some very serious doubts whether or not they're licensed

0:39:24they've pay a business license here or what have you or in fact that they're agents and installers pay a business license so I think that the ordinance needs to have more teeth in there that uh that we go back against the the alarm dealers who have the privilege of doing

0:39:41business here and they you know they may not be paying a business tax and they certainly there's no there's no sales tax you know because sales tax goes probably outside to the state they're doing business in and those those are things I want kind of raise in just to you know have maybe

0:39:58the city attorney's office look into it and uh be considered and you know I don't think it would hurt the trail just matter to one more meeting and put it on on your consent calendar and give notice to the uh the industry people so they can rebut I'd be more than happy to

0:40:16argue with them and um and we go forth but I think it's a little premature to put this into effect because you only get one bite at the Apple and I just you know I think it's uh puts an uh on for a burden on the city and on the citizens and these big Industries

0:40:34enjoy you know coming into El Cerrito and uh without you know paying to do business here that's my uh testimony okay thank you thank you so I thank you are there any other speakers in no other speakers okay then we'll return to the council for discussion a question from the city attorney

0:40:57because it was my understanding and I want to confirm that um all businesses doing business in El Cerrito need to have a business license and that that would apply without regard to what this ordinant content is and it's more of an Enforcement issue of making sure that all those doing

0:41:12business in our city have a license that's correct I mean certainly there's possibility of some independent contractors perhaps aren't aware that they're required to have a business license in every city where they're doing installation work but regardless of the con specific content

0:41:28of of this ordinance generally the municipal code requires all businesses doing business to obtain a business license okay thank you I'd like to thank Mr Bond for coming out tonight and and providing his testimony um I I will say that I did ask for a few more teeth to be put into

0:41:48um uh section 6.55.080 and the discussion at last meeting uh assured me that we have other means of creating enforcement against the businesses so I I certainly was satisfied with the answer from the city attorney that there are other ways to do enforcement against bad bad businesses

0:42:16and certainly these businesses maybe it's a good opportunity with tonight's presentation that there are certainly opportunities for consumers to use some of the services that we heard about from our Department of Consumer Affairs um so I'm I'm actually satisfied that

0:42:36there we do have more traditional enforcement mechanisms to go after bad businesses um the I guess the only thing that I would like to sort of have a policy and not necessarily change in the ordinance is that as the police department does get people enrolled through new businesses that are coming

0:42:59in and getting their their permits to install essentially that certainly are enforcement Aid arms should be looking over to make sure that the installers have business licenses in El Cerrito so that I think that's a a procedural item and not necessarily something that needs to be added into

0:43:19the ordinance bill yeah I was looking through sorry I was looking through this I think we're covered on the definition of alarm business it's actually on the first page of the ordinance at the very bottom it says every alarm business shall maintain a current and valid El Cerrito business

0:43:39license and a current and valid alarm company operator license per California state regulation and the Department of Consumer Affairs so I think that at least from what I'm thinking that would satisfy me going forward with with the ordinance on a uh make sure that we

0:43:56are dealing with licensed and certified companies in El Cerrito any further comment or is there an emotion I'd like to make a motion uh to move forward in an ordinance of the city of El Cerrito repealing chapter 6.55 Burglar Alarm Systems of the El Cerrito municipal code in its

0:44:19entirety and replacing it with chapter 6.55 alarm systems this is the second reading and I believe that we are introducing it by title and waving further reading did I get that right second okay just just to clarify that the or the demotion is to adopt the ordinance

0:44:42tonight yes not to introduce no no you're correct to adopt thank you okay all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposition or abstention motion curious unanimously um next we will move on to item six on our agenda which is public hearings and we have one which is a parking ordinance text

0:45:14Amendment and um so we have Jennifer Carmen [Applause] good evening mayor council members um I'm Jennifer Carmen planning manager to fulfill council's goal of Economic Development the Community Development Department has been working together to address development issues on the

0:46:01theater block may ask what the theater block is we've had a lot of those questions the theater block is the Black mounded by San Pablo to the West Central to the north Kearney to the East and Fairmont to the South this block has been a department focused since the opening of the Cerrito theater

0:46:19the city is currently faced with a number of current and expected vacancies that we may that we may have the opportunity to address immediately through the pilot project being proposed tonight the proposed text Amendment would exempt businesses on this block that front on

0:46:35San Pablo Avenue from the requirement to provide additional off-street parking in the case of an occupancy change parking exemptions are currently achieved through a use permit the use permit process has discouraged a number of potential tenants even though the process is expedited and often

0:46:51successful in this location staff is treating this proposed cause change as a pilot project with phased implementation Area Wide parking study is underway and staff expects the study will be done by the end of the year as part of their recommendation of this text Amendment the Planning Commission

0:47:12specifically requested that parking regulations in this area come back to them no later than March of 2011.

0:47:18or reconsideration once the parking study is completed this exemption will be reevaluated for change or expansion to include surrounding areas such as extending the area to Carlson or to the North or to the South based on thoughtful comments received from the public including Dale power

0:47:38Arlen Robbins as well as individual council members staff proposes a minor text change to the proposed ordinance language this evening this minor text change would keep the parking exception to commercial land uses within existing building Footprints and that is shown on

0:47:56your Goldenrod page in front of you staff hopes this will clarify our intent that the exemption would not allow The Limited number of buildings on the block with off-street parking currently to expand and get rid of that parking by moving forward with this pilot staff

0:48:15believes we can improve improve the theater black re-tenant vacant storefronts and use the findings of this pilot to inform the area-wide parking study and potentially the parking discussion within the future specific plan Dwayne Dalman our economic development

0:48:30project manager is also here tonight to give you a quick update on theater block development and can answer any questions you have regarding Economic Development issues in this area and that's my presentation for this evening questions from the council yeah oh what I'm sorry

0:48:52Dwayne dahlman oh just a good evening mayor and Council just a quick kind of update as Jennifer said the theater block has been a major focus of our Economic Development efforts um and really the business attraction side of economic development is really about creating opportunities and part of

0:49:08the creating that opportunities is creating the right type of environment and process to make it easier for new development to happen um as you know in these times it's hard to find businesses that are willing to expand and invest in in our commuter in a new location

0:49:24um and if there is a willingness you know in conversation that we've had both with business owners um and Property Owners it's the kind of common theme is to try to minimize their risk if at all possible um minimize the risk of of opening the new location and the unknown of that

0:49:40um and as Jennifer pointed out one impediment to this block is is really the lack of parking in some buildings um I've had conversations and our Department's had conversations with now all the property owners on the San Pablo Avenue side of the theater block and

0:49:54basically the conversations that have been about you know is there the opportunity can we create the opportunity is there willingness for owners to look at new tenants or possibly sell their buildings or look at new development um so far we've been successful in that

0:50:09we have found the willingness from property owners and in three cases we're talking to propreneurs now about bringing new tenants uh and in all those cases those are restaurant type of tenants um so however though you know both the the property owners and the tenants

0:50:26confirm that you know as far as minimizing their risk they don't necessarily want to go individually through the through the parking exception kind of process on their own and that's why we're here tonight um and basically what we're talking about is allowing the most flexibility

0:50:40to be able to create the opportunities that are available for us now that completes the staff report bless you okay any questions from Council yes I have I have some uh Jennifer um just had a I just wanted to uh if you could repeat the time limit we have when that study comes back um the Planning

0:51:07Commission asked for it in March of 2011. March 211 and we do expect it to be sooner than that but they asked specifically if the parking study was not completed they wanted to see this regulation back in front of them at that date so we're expecting it back in March

0:51:232011. yes not only report on the parking uh I would imagine not only a report on the on the parking study but also the economic activity during that time okay it will be a reevaluation of what we've done so far and where we can go based on the park and study and other

0:51:41data appreciate that it we didn't have that limitation in the uh in the report so I thank you um could you please uh I know in talking with staff before and actually it came up at the Planning Commission uh the other this the west side of the street in the same block

0:52:06um and there's a good reason for that or at least it sounds like from the staff point of view could you uh repeat that please sure um we have based our parking numbers um on the parking study that was originally done for the Cerrito theater to go beyond that and expand the area

0:52:21would necessitate additional study and possibly leave us with some sequa issues um so we are limiting it to just this area now in the first phase with after the parking studies done it may be able to be expanded depending on those findings okay so we're looking at this as a as a

0:52:40pilot or a test program and right now just for that block if it works out then we'll we'll consider other parts and do the required Environmental Studies required thank you um I just have one for Dwayne indicated that you've had requests from Developers all right

0:53:08various properties on this or and you've heard from landlords I believe uh could you tell me the types of requests you have and the types of requests that you think uh they were discouraged from pursuing because of parking uh the parking requirement primarily with with property owners in

0:53:27one specific property owner um it was it was had conversations with a restaurant user but was concerned about what had happened in the past and and going through the public hearing process and so it really kind of came out to the the timing and the unknown of well if if I

0:53:45talk to someone who's interested in a potential space a restaurant say user um it was kind of the unwillingness to say well if we don't know what's going to happen if what do we tell the tenant as far as from a time frame perspective we don't know what's going to happen if we go

0:54:00before Council if we go before a public type of hearing and people come out and and and there are negative comments on it um the thought was well if that happened in the past they didn't necessarily want to go through that same kind of process again on an individual kind of basis

0:54:19um well okay so it's this has been generated by one landlord or have we had other no no I mean I I think that the benefit that we've talked about is that is that by the by us doing this for the entire block it gives flexibility for for all the property owners um so it wasn't just one owner that that

0:54:39said that this was a concern we've heard the same type of comment that said well we need the flexibility if we're going to go out and try to talk to other users that are they're different from what we have right now um we need the flexibility to say well you know at least is this parking issue

0:54:55can that be taken care of okay thank you yeah I have one uh yep um I guess this would be I think for Jennifer it's a thought that came to me as we were looking at this uh presentation um the current uh test or Pilot size was 1500 square feet so properties that with structures that

0:55:25are less than 1500 square feet have an exemption or stated in ordinance an exemption from uh on off street parking um if we were to for this block make it 2500 square feet uh we would essentially be accomplishing something very similar um there would be three businesses or

0:55:46three existing structures that would no longer um wouldn't be getting that uh benefit one of them is Comcast that provides off-street parking and one of them is the Pick and Pack Liquors which provides off street parking and so the only other one would be the comics Performing Arts

0:56:07which has a footprint size of 4 500 square feet so I'm just wondering if there's another way to get to 80 or 90 percent of what you're trying to to accomplish without necessarily creating this this zero parking for the whole block your tenant spaces that you've called

0:56:28out the change in occupancy that kicks off the re-evaluation of the parking requirement so let's say it was one of the spaces that is not 2500 square feet and they had a restaurant the current parking restriction in this area or requirement is about one to three

0:56:44hundred and if you have off street parking that's grandfathered because all of these businesses were built back in the day before the zoning ends so if the parking restrictions go to 1 to 100 there's really no way for them to provide that that parking off street

0:56:59parking without a use permit exception and this is sort of the way of of avoiding these six or seven use permit exceptions that can come forward with anytime you see that type of of exceptions on one block in particular there's something wrong with the code and so this is our way of going back and

0:57:17trying to rectify that problem in 2008 the 1500 square foot exemption was adopted as part of the zoning ordinance changes this is sort of the next baby step and as part of the area white parking study it may become something that we could expand across the district I guess

0:57:34my perspective is that someone who's moving into a 4 500 square foot area um maybe they should be coming forward and going through the exemption process that I don't consider that necessarily a small space or small shop that's necessarily coming in so that to you

0:57:51know I can see people Mr dolman's testimony small shops 2 500 square feet certainly needing that type of of certainty in the the discretionary process to potentially allow the landlord to move that forward but I guess if something is as big as 5000 square feet 4 500 square feet why aren't

0:58:12they coming forward through the exemption process well um how do I say this um we have had experience with those spaces coming through the use permit exemption process and given the the land issue land uses in the area and the surrounding problems with parking off street parking and the

0:58:34availability of parking we would use the same analysis to justify the use permit exception so it's this code amendment is essentially doing six or eight of them all in one shot and it applies to only the existing buildings as they stand now you can't expand them you can't get rid of the

0:58:51parking that's already there you just wouldn't be held to a higher parking standard if you changed occupancy or improved your business so in a sense isn't that what we did for the theater the largest parcel on the Block when we approve that project and we all are familiar with the adaptations

0:59:10that the business has made and that the neighbors have made and that the clients are experiencing so I think that we're really extending that policy you know to this block to promote the economic development thank you if I may go ahead um Miss Carmen sorry before you sit down

0:59:30could you I know Mr Jones asked about the parking study the the timing of it but could you potentially give us a little more understanding about um where this study area might be or more importantly in my mind what is going to be measured and how will those measurements be used to assess the

0:59:48success of this ordinance we're currently scoping the study right now um the area that was looked at in the previous SQL documents or Parkin study for the theater was very small it was within about a six minute walk what I'd like to see is it expanded um to Carlson perhaps all the way back

1:00:09to Richmond looking at the different issues in the area obviously budget is an issue and so we're looking for the best analysis that we can with the best resources we have available and what will be measured is current parking availability current parking um measures that are used such as our

1:00:31permit parking program whether those need to be expanded the current occupancy of on-street parking similar to what was done for the Cerrito theater all of those types of things will be measured whether we need to go to a you've heard congestion pricing being measured at some point and those may be

1:00:47recommendations that come out of the study but again we'll have to balance resources against what for example the cost would be of meters or other things that may be a recommendation and that is where my question was going to thank you for anticipating it certainly we had a

1:01:02very long presentation about parking and in there there was a discussion about making the parking occupancy available you know pricing it in such a way that there's 15 percent open at any given time and certainly that's something and maybe it's done through 20 minutes more

1:01:1820-minute zones or more one-hour zones or 30 minute zones as opposed to parking structures parking meters um but uh that I just you've touched on the one of the outcomes to the study that certainly could allow us to make better decisions about the parking in this area thank you

1:01:37thank you are we ready to move on in the process okay um this is going to be a public hearing and so we will now open the public hearing and hear comments from the public are there any speakers we have one speaker Arlen Robbins thank you hello I live at [address removed] which is

1:02:07approximately two blocks away from the location we're talking about I did not realize that my letter would get to you on such short notice so I don't want to repeat what I believe you all have already I just want to comment that um when we restrict parking in any way

1:02:27we lose customers um I know for myself that I've stopped doing a lot of my shopping in Berkeley because I'm tired of getting tickets for being two minutes late to get back to my meter and I will go all the way to the mall sometimes uh to Hilltop Mall to buy things that I probably could find

1:02:50locally because there's no parking so I'm glad that you're considering at least not getting rid of parking that exists now I'd like to further encourage if since we have a lot of sidewalk there that we I believe are now able to be responsible for um through our our agreement with

1:03:14Caltrans to even consider going as far as as looking into diagonal parking or something that would allow heavier a heavier density of parking on that street it's a very busy area and I think that part of the reason why some businesses have been failing there is in

1:03:36part at least because people can't park there we have people coming all the way to Lexington 10 to park either for the BART or for that shopping area they definitely park there for the yoga and for the theater so um you know we all adjust but we're getting up to our ears in in there's no

1:03:59more room so I just wanted to suggest the diagonal thing and I wanted to encourage trying to to keep whatever is available and not not removing that at least thank you okay and there are no other public comments no other speakers for this item okay then do we have a motion to close the

1:04:24public hearing show moved okay there's a motion in a second to close the public hearing all in favor please say aye aye I'll post abstentions motion carries unanimously and are there any additional comments or questions from the council I just uh if you're taking them now I I

1:04:43just want to make a few comments um I think this is one of the more important uh exercises I guess is a good word but um that's come up and and will be because uh if it works here there's a possibility through the San Pablo specific plan that it could be utilized other parts

1:05:07so I understand and I support the spirit of the recommendation I attended the the Planning Commission meeting when it was presented I heard all the testimony and uh I I heard the one landlord it's the only one I heard actually and uh staff has looked at it they've analyzed it and

1:05:28they feel that it's worth considering and when we talk about the San Pablo specific plan there's a couple purposes that come to my mind at least personally I know we haven't passed it yet but it will be coming but one of the purposes is to be consistent in our development with both sides of the

1:05:47Avenue [Music] um El Cerrito and Richmond were different we're trying to bring consistency there so I'm I'm very I'm sensitive to that and all but also on the other hand the specific plan is also designed to provide flexibility or to promote flexibility in development and when you

1:06:11have that there there are times where we have to uh try things and some things will work out some things won't before the changes that were made tonight it bothered me that we didn't have a closing to when this test period or pilot program was going to come to an

1:06:29end and the size of the building I could Envision somebody running in and wanting a three-story Building without having to provide parking um those questions have been answered and at least for the testing the other thing I'm a little disappointed in is that we don't open it up to the second

1:06:45to the side directly to the West for that block but I understand that we until we know a permanent Direction where we're going we don't want to uh need to go through the Environmental situations so I I think uh March 2011 the council at that time will take up the issue and maybe provide permanent

1:07:08Direction in that regard so those are my comments yeah I am we've had many conversations about parking here about maximums and minimums and I really like the way this program is set out in a limited area and a limited time frame as sort of a pilot project so we can try it out and see if

1:07:31it works and we have a lot of flexibility to make adjustments as we try to figure out what we want to do for the whole city as we adapt to changes and um consideration of greenhouse gas emission and the need for improving circulation and sustainability so I think it's a

1:07:49really nice effort and I support it and I did want to add that I understand that the State Office of planning and research is going through a process of revising The Secret guidelines I don't know where they are in that process but the last time I saw it the checklist had

1:08:03been revised to eliminate the impacts to parking so it may be that the by the time of March 2011 when we get back to this that will make it easier for us to make a consistency on both sides of the street which I also would support yeah this item did cost me a tremendous

1:08:21amount of heartburn because of the uh the the special nature of it the indefinite time frame because the certainly the staff report presented it in a way that there wasn't um clear uh testing of it you know it was presented as a pilot program but it was not presented with all of the

1:08:40metrics or scope that I would like to see when we're when we're bringing something forward as a test um so I so I testimony tonight certainly did go towards addressing some of the concerns that I had um you know it it just felt like it was out of sequence but certainly I can

1:08:59understand given the vacancies that are occurring in that block um and the competition for New Economic uses that this is a a way that we can Revitalize this block and bring new businesses to this area so I am hoping that this decision tonight will uh bring us new uh tenants along that

1:09:19block and we can um come forward in a nine month period or less and and demonstrate the success of this decision tonight and have a parking study that demonstrates that we did not um overburden The Neighbors in the area or at least come forward with suggestions on changing in

1:09:41restricted parking more permanent parking Etc so I um feel that tonight's testimony has answered most of my concerns and questions so thank you and um do you have something bill just wondering Nothing precludes by the way other people coming in and asking for a

1:10:03jet exemptions through the formal process that's correct you know just because we're doing this for this one special thing so yeah and I just wanted to add I think this is an ideal place to try this out it's near the the BART station it's near the rapid transit

1:10:19system so there's an immense amount of Transit so the need for parking um you know anywhere in the city is probably um nowhere uh less than it is in this area so this is an ideal place to try something like this out and so with that if there are no more comments of

1:10:43somebody ready to make a motion I move approval by title and wave any further reading of an ordinance of the city of El Cerrito I'm ending chapter 19.24 off street parking and loading containing title 19 of the zoning of the El Cerrito municipal code second okay all in favor please say aye

1:11:04aye in the opposition or abstention motion carries unanimously with that we will move on to item seven a and I will turn it over to Sandy Potter our Redevelopment agency chair so item 7A is a Redevelopment agency item where staff is seeking direction from the board on the developer

1:11:27solicitation for redevelopment agency property located at 10 8 60 and 10 8 48 San Pablo Avenue good evening chairperson Potter and members of the agency board I'm Hildy miles senior project manager with the city's Redevelopment and Housing division I'm before you tonight to request the

1:11:51board's direction to issue a request for qualifications of proposals for a residential mixed use development at the agency M Property also known as the tradeway property the agency board continued this item at its March 1st meeting and requested circulation of the existing historical

1:12:08study and provided some comments for staff to address in a revised RFP staff has circulated the historical study and is now returning with a revised RFP to request the board's direction to proceed um as we know the purpose of the RFP issuance is to solicit Developers

1:12:31proposals from Developers for a mixed use affordable housing development on the site in terms of legal and environmental considerations issuance of the RFP in itself doesn't commit the agency to select a developer and nor does the RFP make any sort of determination regarding

1:12:49the nature of the site or any buildings of the site that would be dealt with later in a process assuming a developer and a proposal was selected however sap is requesting that we be able to move forward to see what's what's out there in terms of meeting the affordable

1:13:05housing needs of our community thank you thank you are there any speakers yes we have four speakers the first is Santi genser Mack good evening my name is Sandy ginser Mack I grew up in El Cerrito but I now live in Richmond and I have two local causes one is to make this area to help

1:13:36make this area a great place to live and the other is to preserve local history and I don't have to tell you that Richmond I'm sorry El Cerrito has a very interesting history and there's not a lot of left of a lot of it left to see and um what I'm asking you to do is to save

1:13:57the wonderful building that was a quarry office and a florist for the Japanese flower Growers and has a lot of history and the other thing it does is it brings charm to San Pablo Avenue which is something that you've been working on and we all appreciate we want San Pablo

1:14:15Avenue to be a place that people want to go not just drive by really fast so I appreciate your consideration of saving this wonderful building thank you cheetah good evening my name is Tom yumashta I'm a resident of Richmond I'm a long time resident of this area having attended stage in

1:14:47Balboa schools Portola and Granada junior high school and I graduated from El Cerrito High in back then many years ago I'm here this evening to add a little personal note about your consideration for the Contra Costa florist building prior to World War II the Nevada family

1:15:08were Pioneers in the Richmond El Cerrito area recognizing this as the ideal place to grow flowers particularly carnations and roses they built their first Nursery in an area which is now the intersection of pachorro Avenue and the East Shore freeway it is now home to the East Bay Free

1:15:28Methodist Church other families such as the sakais the Nino Mias and the oishi's followed suit building their nurseries adjacent to the nebetas part of their land now is the Orchard Supply Hardware Store my father worked for the Nevada family for over 30 years he eventually became

1:15:47the foreman for the nursery the growth and this Saga was interrupted during World War II when all the Japanese Americans were evacuated to relocation camps as a side note I was born in one of the camps in topaz my father did what many other men of his age did he volunteered for the Army to

1:16:10fight for the United States even though his family was locked up in the camps my dad and the other brave men became part of the 442 regimental combat team the most decorated military unit in U.S history dad earned two purple hearts in his campaigns in Europe after the war many of the families from

1:16:33topaz returned to this area in government housings near the nebeta nursery property dad and the others worked to repair the vandalism and the Damage Done while they were all gone into camps and into war as the wholesale trade flourished the retail trade also did

1:16:54this area was originally the home to adachi florist and Nursery the Miyamoto florist and the Contra Costa florist these nurseries and the florists contributed significantly to the economic development of the city of El Cerrito they provided jobs to those who were coming back from the war and also

1:17:15those returning from camp and many of my generation we got our first jobs working in the nurseries in the florists working nights weekends and on holidays but progress and change are inevitable shortly after the nurseries were rebuilt the state announced that they were

1:17:33building the East Shore freeway on the land occupied by most of the nurseries this forced them to relocate primarily to North Richmond the BART system now runs across the property that was the adachi florist and Nursery the adachi family chose to relocate the El sobrani the Miyamoto

1:17:52florist eventually closed leaving only the Contra Costa florist as our last remnants of this era I would like you to reflect on the legacy of my father this evening as you consider plans on what to do with the with the property plans that may destroy the former Contra

1:18:12Costa florist building losing the building would be a tragedy and a travesty for the entire Community not just the Japanese American community I hope that you'll seriously consider the cultural aspects of this building and its importance on us as citizens of El Cerrito thank you thank you thank you

1:18:32Tom panis good evening agency chair Potter members of the board and City staff my name is Tom panis I live at [address removed] in El Cerrito I'm pleased to be able to hear tonight actually to present a letter from the director of the preserving California towns organization she would

1:19:05like to be here but she's currently studying at Harvard she's a Loeb fellow this year so she writes the following I'm writing to support the efforts of local citizens and requesting further assistance of the landmark potential for of the Cal for the Contra Costa florist

1:19:19building on San Pablo Avenue I understand this structure has several layers of significance associated with El Cerrito's Rich history I'm writing because of my awareness of this structure house a florist shop owned by the Mochi family prior to World War II the mobuchis were

1:19:33prominent members of the local group of Japanese community and Industry in North Street in Richmond an orleaner among the oral history interviews I conducted with Tom Oishi of the bank for the Bancroft library in Roseville the rivet or World War II National home front Historical Park

1:19:48described Mr ambuchi's carpentry skills his generosity in teaching younger nisei second generation Japanese such as Mr Oishi how to build the wooden greenhouses to still stand in nearby Richmond like all people of Japanese descent on the west coast mabuchis were forced to

1:20:03leave their home business and Community to live behind barbed wire an under armed guard in an internment camp during World War II the story is highlighted in the recent book our mother's War American women at home and at the front during World War II in which the author

1:20:17uses Akiko mobuchi's memories to powerfully defect depict the trauma and lasting impact of these events these associations with an important local industry a local immigrant community and the federal government's egregious attack on civil liberties during World War II are all significant

1:20:32parts of el Cerrito's history Heritage held by this building this structure complements efforts in Richmond to tell this story at the Rose of the Riveter National Park and creates a tie for El Cerrito to this initiative please give full consideration to the local community's request to reassess

1:20:48the potential Landmark status for this historic resource thank you thank you our last speaker is Jill shiraki mayor Abelson and El Cerrito council members I'm a resident of El Cerrito I'm Jill shiraki and I'm really pleased to speak in support of the historic significance of the Quarry and mobuchi

1:21:20flower shop historic historically named Contra Costa Forest at 10848 San Pablo I work with Donna Graves cultural historian that you just heard her letter um from we work on a project called preserving California's Japan towns it's a Statewide effort to look at pre-World

1:21:40War II Japantown communities throughout the state and the impact World War II had on these communities um although the Richmond in El Cerrito Japanese American communities were not part of our initial 43 Japantown surveys because of its size we've become more familiar with these

1:21:59important resources through recent advocacy efforts and we really appreciate the efforts of Tom panis Community historian and David Weinstein of El Cerrito Historical Society um one of the things I wanted to note is that the mobuchi flower shop and the country line laundry are the last

1:22:21remaining historic buildings in this region flower shop is a poignant reminder of the story of Tomi and hiko Jiro mabuchi and their three daughters Clara Michiko and Akiko and the Injustice they suffered during World War II they were fortunate the blue cheese were fortunate

1:22:40enough to have allies and their neighbors the conwells the owner of the furniture store tradeway furniture the conwell's watched over their property and protected it so that it wouldn't be vandalized while they were gone and they were able to one of the few families throughout the state there

1:22:58weren't many most Japanese-American families lost their property either through vandalism or forced to sell not knowing whether they could return the mabutis were able to come back because of this gesture in El Cerrito and Richmond there were four flower shops and 14 nurseries and

1:23:18Mr yamashta just gave you a little background on that through our Statewide efforts we realized a real significance of the Japanese American contributions in both the floral and Nursery businesses wholesale retail flower Growers and this area in particular has an

1:23:39opportunity to share that story recent efforts in Richmond with the Richmond Redevelopment agency and their Miraflores housing development project they were able to determine that of the historic significance of the Oishi Sakai nurseries and have prioritized to

1:24:01preserve two of the green greenhouses the historic home of the sakais and the water tower and look at ways to utilize those buildings in their development plans as well as share this story to our broader audience with a local advocacy group we've been working with

1:24:22um to tell the story of the Richmond UK nurseries we've commissioned for a short film to be produced a 10-minute film on the history of the Japanese in the area and that will be shown at the Rosie the Riveter home front National Park and Visitors Center there are also local efforts in Berkeley

1:24:44to the obata studio and Telegraph in Dwight has been designated as a local landmark and we're currently working with the developer there who plans to have Arts Cafe and is interested in recognizing the historic significance there of artist professor chioda obata and his

1:25:05significant relationship with UC Berkeley and the art world he was able to start art um teach art in both Tanforan the Assembly Center across the bay and topaz concentration camp in Utah so there are lots of ways that this small story of the mabuchi flower shop

1:25:25can connect with the broader story and not just the story of the Japanese-American immigrant Community but the American story of all people thank you thank you no other speakers okay so we did have a discussion a lengthy discussion at our last meeting and I wanted to open up for comments of

1:25:49the agency board and any questions of the staff in uh rereading this I did find two locations where I would like to make some suggestions about text changes I don't know if if staff is prepared to talk through these stat these text changes one of those on page two

1:26:11I think these are minor and can certainly be incorporated without changing any dates or delaying us so I think that they can be Incorporated pretty quickly um under the paragraph the first paragraph under invitation and page two the site is currently occupied by vacant

1:26:30buildings that may need to be demolished as opposed to will need to be demolished I think that that we can um or you may have some other proposed language um you want if the intent is to clear one suggestion is to Simply say the site is currently occupied by vacant

1:26:50buildings which is a statement of fact and basically then to add a paragraph or a sentence simply saying if if the proposal if the developer's proposal is to redevelop the site then the developer would be responsible for any demolition of existing structures with of course the provision that any

1:27:10selected project will be subject to SQL review with the intent here just to make clear that um for any demolition for a proposed development the developer is responsible for that that's what we're trying to clarify but it also is anticipating or um leaving open uh that there may be

1:27:33alternative proposals for the site so and in the second place the same concept exists is on page six uh the third paragraph under site uh subsection description uh the same sentiment all of the buildings are vacant uh the selected developer uh would be responsible for demolishing

1:27:57these buildings or would be responsible for any demolition um right I think yeah what would be responsible for any demolition of buildings on the site again it the the issue here being that the demolition not being a foregone conclusion that we would certainly want to see uh proposals that

1:28:18considered it I appreciate this starting subsection B environmental conditions and I think that the clarification about the requirement to comply with sequa does make it clear that this RFP in a way takes a position on the historic value of the existing buildings and that

1:28:46that would be deferred to the SQL evaluation it doesn't specifically propose any one development or other for a particular individual building and I think that um this agency board and staff is committed to working with the historical society and the community and our neighbors

1:29:07to try to move this site forward with Redevelopment that will work for the community but that will also preserve the story and the historic value of the property so I think that we really appreciate you coming out tonight and making testimony and it's just a reminder that I think that we can we can

1:29:29satisfy many of the objectives that we have set out to do and I'm encouraged to hear of the working relationships with the city of Richmond in Redevelopment and I'm optimistic that we can fulfill a good project here that will meet those goals and I don't know if any agency members have

1:29:47any other comments to add well the historical it's been brought up now for two meetings here and even offline about the historical evaluation and it's clear that that will be part of the sequa my question though is are we going to do the state test that um at least testimony

1:30:09communication uh not the state test the state study that testimony given uh indicated was needed or at least desired uh to complete the evaluation of the historical uh evaluation of of the site okay I just was great wanted to be clear on that okay there's also uh

1:30:42there's creative ways to to approach it and I I would hope that developers could could give us even more creative ways than what we felt uh was there uh that's on that site so it'd be interesting to see what developers come up with given the fact that they know there's

1:31:04interest in in several different directions on this to see what what they come up with and I think that's part of the whole exercise here we're just beginning a process it's going to take a while and I think Hildy has indicated that several times that when you get into a pro a project like

1:31:22this we're not talking that the building is going to be up in a year it it fortunately or unfortunately we have a process that will follow and there'll be plenty of time to discuss these and other issues so there's been an expressed interest in this project in terms of its historical

1:31:47um uh in terms of its history and historical use in a Japanese community um there's no mention of that in this document are we doing a disservice by just not mentioning it or should we maybe mention that there's been an interest I personally think it'll come out in the

1:32:19in the process I um we don't mention a lot of things in there uh the purpose of the RSP is to give the developer an opportunity to understand what due diligence was done in preparation for considering Redevelopment and we've reported it factually here regarding hazardous materials and

1:32:42the historic evaluation and I believe that the um those reports are made available as part of this process so they'll have all the details of it so the details of the sorts of things that we're hearing they would receive as part of their copy of that report okay

1:33:01so I think that board member Lyman gave some good critique and edits for the RP itself and that the board has given Direction so there's no vote on this item that's I have one further request and direction I in looking at the calendar I do notice that the rfps are due

1:33:20um at 4 pm on Monday June 21st would be wonderful if staff could give us a report in that evening's Council session please just to clarify a report of what was received yes please I won't be able to evaluate them in that time no no no just just the number and maybe uh maybe some of the the people

1:33:46who did respond just so that the public is aware of how many responders we have and and maybe gets the names of those responders so they can start their uh campaign a full detail report and we want you to have decided no no don't decide before the 19th of July thank you

1:34:16why can't I find it there it is somehow I'm not finding 7B in my yeah okay there thank you the next item and the agenda is the major a street Improvement program The Professional Services contract Amendment with Avila project management and um Jerry Bradshaw will be presenting our

1:34:49award-winning uh engineer city engineer and Public Works director I'm going to say that for a while I'm sorry thank you madam mayor and Council Jerry Bradshaw your Public Works director uh this item is um is to to continue the work on the designing and management of

1:35:12the measure a program uh the agenda bill has some some background for you on how we've gotten to this point uh but I'd like to just jump right into to where we are with the Avila project management contract as we wound down the construction projects for this last year

1:35:32uh we evaluated the the status of his contract and and uh I must report that we had a significant overrun on one of the projects that he managed last year and that being the asphalt rubber Cape seal project if you recall that was the largest project that we let out to bid

1:35:53last year at about three and a half million dollars was the bid and if you recall at that time we asked for a larger than normal contingencies for that project because we had in mind to expand the scope into possibly some more streets but primarily to deal with the unknowns surrounding

1:36:14the replacement of some storm drain pipes that were undermining the streets as well as the curb and gutter quantities were just hard to predict going into the project the good news is that the project came in a little under the budget that was allotted for it but what we didn't

1:36:31anticipate was not only the extra work but the extra engineering and the extra construction oversight associated with that particularly the storm drain where we thought we could just replace existing pipes with new pipes we found a lot of mysteries out there that needed

1:36:47to be solved a lot of engineering had to be done the contractor and rightly so expected to have some pretty good drawings to work from so on the Fly while construction was just getting going we started doing some more detailed engineering and produced storm drain Improvement drawings for those

1:37:05those projects we also didn't anticipate that the contractor we have would be a rather difficult entity to deal with on this project so we ended up having to do a lot of extra administrative work that we don't normally see on Municipal Paving projects so those are the two main factors that

1:37:27combine to having Avila construct Avila project management have to spend a lot more time a lot more effort on on that particular project conversely the other three projects that we're working on came in under budget so that the net overrun for Avila was a hundred and

1:37:46twenty four thousand I probably should have been here a few months ago reporting this and getting authorization to proceed and I apologize for that this but we the the work was ongoing and we just kept pushing along on the middle of the page two we we give you a project by project breakdown of

1:38:09have a list costs since the last authorization last April and the lower portion of that table also gives you a project by project breakdown of the construction and soft costs for each one of those projects in the 2009 construction season we did nearly six million dollars worth of

1:38:29construction and invested about one million dollars of soft costs and producing that for an average of 18 percent of construction costs for soft costs the the one project the federal rubberized asphalt concrete project came in quite a bit higher 28 percent but as

1:38:49I explained in the staff report that's that's quite common effect that's fairly low percentage for some of the federal projects we've done before informally hearing from my colleagues around the county looking forward we are well we are currently uh finishing up the design for

1:39:07the 2010 projects that's work that you had already authorized the design for that but we are here to ask for authorization to send Avila forward on the construction Administration inspection and Grant Administration for this upcoming construction season on page three of the staff report I give

1:39:28you a a breakdown of his fee estimate by project the the totaling 265 000 to administer these projects and again on the lower portion of that table I give you what we hope to be the total soft cost and construction costs for these up to upcoming projects this this next calendar year

1:39:50about two million dollars worth of construction we anticipate with about a half million dollars worth of oversight and administration costs fees will will include work on construction inspection engineering work construction oversight contract Administration and not least of all is the grant

1:40:12Administration we have several grants that we've been working on on this whole program and there's several still outstanding that Avila will be a ministering for us and there's a lot of paperwork administrative costs associated with those um Avila we are asking for a sole source

1:40:32agreement technically here but this is practice in Practical terms it's just a continuation of the work that they've been doing for us throughout this program they've been working for us since the Inception of the measure rate program before this ever got to the ballot in

1:40:46February of 08 and continued on and helped us launch this into reality as we move forward with the passage of measuring um I stayed in the staff report that Avila a project management has performed well in their work thus far and we have confidence that they are the

1:41:06most qualified firm at this point in time and by that I mean they've actually done a very great job I'm really happy with the work they've done they've been flexible in our approach we've decided to move very quickly on this program and to do a lot of our design work and on

1:41:21the fly as we move through the project we feel like that that's paid dividends in our soft cost ratio as we move forward and they have been a consulting firm that has worked well with that type of approach not something you get from all consulting firms so that takes them

1:41:36out of their comfort zone quite a bit uh I mentioned he has seen through several grants including a prop 1B grant for local streets and Roads a prop 1B grant for self-help agencies a two recycling grants from the state um Cal recycle for the rubberized asphalt and the asphalt rubber Cape seal

1:42:02and three federal grants including the original STP Grant from 2008.

1:42:082009 Federal stimulus Grant in the upcoming 2010 stimulus Grant legislation pending so he's actually done quite a bit of work for us and if any of you have ministered grants you'll know that there's a lot of paperwork a lot of headache there and I'm very glad to have

1:42:25someone confident in doing all that for us and actually getting the invoices in and getting our money back around in summary measure a is looking to wrap up this next year in its major construction effort hopefully in 2011 we'll begin the rest of our lives with

1:42:43an annual payment maintenance program in these three years we will have brought in revenues totaling 14.3 million dollars those funds will have gone to 12.1 million for construction and 2.1 million for soft costs uh within that's an overall 18 ratio and that includes three Federal projects in

1:43:05there that are anywhere between 25 and 45 soft costs um if you look at just the local we funded projects we're running about a 15 soft cost ratio so I think the way we've approached this has been effective and um and we look forward to working with apple as we finish up this final year of

1:43:27this program with that I'll open up to any questions soft costs include City labor assigned to the project uh no those that's not included in those numbers so what is the definition of soft cost the soft classes I've computed here are the cost paid out to non-construction entities so the Avila

1:43:54project management are materials testing we have had some special tests perform for the asphalt rubber to go into Labs we've had surveyors come out and do some survey work in preparation for the some of the design on the more complex work so those are some of the major soft

1:44:11costs we've had uh we do we do bring in the staff is paid for out of these projects too but I don't think that that I I did not include that in those ratios there um and uh Avila has been with us since 2007 performing these Services actually Design Services and construction

1:44:31Management Services um what is your prognosis about the future is this one of the last uh contract amendments or will they be back in a year for the 2012 or 2011 Paving no I anticipate this to be the final final go-around as we move into next year's I have yet to to determine exactly how we're going

1:44:58to approach that that will probably be mostly a slurry seal project with a few overlay streets or other major work but that's pretty minor so we might be able to do that with a lot less engineering uh probably not entirely in-house with just the lean staff we have but if we do

1:45:13come back with some consultant help it'll be on a much lesser scale I I do plan Avila has done a lot of other Workforce besides measure a they handle all the disadvantaged business Enterprise submittals we need to do each year for Caltrans to be eligible for all

1:45:28these grants they have worked with us on our pavement management system which is related to measuring and paid for for measure a so they may come back around and help us with that if we have any major tasks with that in in future years it actually started out working on other

1:45:44minor projects right now we seem to be doing fine with staff handling the minor projects but we might want to tap into his skills for those other things but those would come back on separate items and I don't have any specific plans at this point so that raises a question I mean it

1:46:03sounds like we are our staff is learning some of these patient pavement Management systems but it sounds like we're going to continue to rely on consultants for an ongoing system I mean I understand the big peak through construction but as we go into a more maintenance mode we're going to rely on

1:46:19a consultant for what might be considered ongoing work um we actually use a consultant Nichols engineering has been the one in the last few years we've used Harris and Mac Tech years before to actually do the bi-annual Street payment system update so we'd probably still use those

1:46:40specialty consultants for that if there's some major effort or we need to coordinate that work with some other Capital work that I might call on some additional help but I don't really foresee that at this point okay I noticed that you've only done a 10 uh contingency in is that in

1:46:57your attempt to avoid uh you know having to come back to the the council if you exceed I think it was I think our request was if you exceeded fifty thousand dollars in overruns you were going to come back and give us a verbal report I think it was 75 000.

1:47:12um that was uh for the construction contracts that we let last year okay I do have one final change order that we're working on currently that might warrant that report for the asphalt rubber as we try and finalize the final quantities on that thank you I just I just want to confirm what I

1:47:33think is correct but that the cost overruns did not result in any of the streets that were scheduled for Paving being postponed or or taken off the list for work to be done no absolutely not okay thank you bill um you you know outlined a number of things that the owner or the city had asked or

1:47:55needed to do uh work that wasn't anticipated so I understand that part of the increase in in fees we ask them to do it we did it however [Music] um what concerns me is the amount of fees that we're paying out extra for what the contractor the problems that the contractor gave us and

1:48:24scheduling whatever coordinating whatever problems you ran into and we have to absorb not only the delay and and some of the problems associated with that but also the cost for for the consultant and part of the job of the consultant is to make sure that these things actually happen

1:48:48so my question is do you really feel that those conditions were out of the control of a management of the uh of our consultant for that yes I do I I had to get involved personally on several accounts and have some high level discussions with vice presidents of Corporations out of the

1:49:13Central Valley it was well with outside of his control Mr Avila is not only a skilled project manager and and has really good background in engineering he's also um a graduate of law school and understands contracts and how to work with people and leveraging things he he

1:49:38uh really did an excellent job or I think to get it to where it was that this contract came into town was moving very very fast once they got here but in order to get them here it was it was like pulling teeth I I have great confidence that he did everything he

1:49:52could it wasn't his his fault at all for the way it the way it went with the contractor so is there anything we're going to tighten up on because I I really don't I really don't want to see overruns in 2010 coming up 2010 early 11 whatever it takes um it's it's hard for us to absorb it as

1:50:13you know because we're we're getting thinner and thinner with our resources so is there anything that you foresee that we can tighten up either contract wise or management wise on this uh work coming up the worst is behind us the storm drain issues we're doing very very little of

1:50:34that this upcoming year we aren't inviting this contractor back because he does the specialty work that we don't really have on the on the Slate this year um I'm hoping we get back into a mode of a range of work where we've had good luck with contractors I mean they're not all

1:50:52perfect by any means and we've had to work harder with some than others there's really no way in a contract to put a monetary penalty on on those things um so we we've learned some lessons here where we will be applying them in upcoming contracts unfortunately this

1:51:08particular contract and this contractor were unique in several ways including the type of Paving process that they utilized that we really aren't going to be facing here in the very near future and and I have to say uh we're seeing the downside of public bidding and occasionally this happens

1:51:29yeah not every it seems like that every city runs into at least one project where they say you know we get the low bid and that's exactly how it performed and I think we were close to that on on this one which uh is not really I I don't think it's the fault of anybody you really don't

1:51:48know how a contractor is going to perform until they actually get out there um I I I'm hoping that maybe we can do a little uh better job in screening and pre and the qualifications and to the extent of the law allows put in some pre-quals so that maybe we can eliminate

1:52:07uh it was a real low bid because you know it was a real good one uh we felt at the time but I guess it was too bit too good on that um let's see here wait a minute I had one more oh in your in your report you'd indicated that uh let's see here the scope of work maybe

1:52:32have to be cut back due to decreased funding and maybe I'm I misread that but um it appeared to me what you were stating that we may have to to re-look at the scope of work that we're going to do coming up relative to the resources we have available and the resources we're on a decrease

1:52:53because of the economy a little bit our tax I guess it's our tax sale sales tax revenue uh well they're actually two different things the the overall revenues in in the program as we foresaw it in 2007 and up to Liam to the vote in 2008.

1:53:11um was 17 million over five years over take away 2 million for the three three of those five years would be about 15 million and um we got in 14.3 million so we're a little bit under um but I what I stated in there is that despite the lower revenues the the lower

1:53:35bid prices actually made up for that and we've been able to meet the goals that we had into anticipated on how much we are are going to be Paving uh in with less money and in less time so I I don't think that it'd be nice to have gotten the full 15 or more million

1:53:53that way I could just do that many more streets but I think we've pretty much met the goals that we set out to do in one last year and with almost a million dollars less well where I'm going with this is uh you're asking for us uh to approve in a contract in the

1:54:14Consulting contract is that geared to the actual work we're going to do in 2010 or are we anticipating the scope going down and so then my question is will the fee go down proportionally if the scope happens to go down no we we've already made that fit that's what I've been

1:54:34doing over the last month is to as the dust settles on the big year last year to see what our resources are so we can tailor the project to fit into that we had done some preliminary engineering that were probably a little more optimistic than than we thought but we

1:54:49are now tailoring the scope for the final design and the construction and these are tailored into that what we're planning now we can deliver given our resources yes okay thank you I had a question about the upcoming work and um a couple things I guess the one of

1:55:09the questions I had is my understanding about the fuse streets that were referred to as being in poorer condition and I'm wondering if there's much likeliness of what happened on Ashbury where the street collapsed happening in those or is that was that just a total

1:55:31fluke I'm just wondering if we have that in our future again likely and I don't I guess it said I don't really understand what happened on Ashbury and I'm wondering if how that speaks to Future streets what I don't anticipate quite happening on Ashbury again when you open up the street surface and

1:55:58you put heavy equipment on the dirt that's out there you can get some surprises but Ashbury we we dug that down a full six inches which is not something we plan on doing this coming year we might be digging down we might do some complete payment Replacements which

1:56:15would be three inches deep which still leaves a good structural section below that on Ashbury we went down six inches and we found some soft Earth and then with the heavy truck traffic that went on over it it made those soft spots get quite soft so we had to do a little bit

1:56:32of um repair and it took uh an extra week or two to finish the street although that wasn't a week or two of constant resources so we did keep that project within budget but it did throw us some Surprises with the extra dip we could have a little bit of that on oh two of

1:56:49the streets that we're going to be doing complete pavement restoration but I don't think it'll be in the caliber that Ashbury was and then I had another question I guess it's because um in areas relatively near my house although they're not immediately near my house I've noticed that some of the

1:57:09edges of the surf the asphalt um kind of formal lip as it approaches the gutter and I'm wondering uh if there's a way to avoid that or to minimize that because I'm concerned about the buckling that might occur in the future and then the area becomes very inaccessible

1:57:34yeah the the treatment we did last year with the cape seal is adding uh a half inch of Street surface to the existing surface and we we tiered the edges of that so it would stop about six inches short of The Gutter and then the final surface would come over overlap that

1:57:52that six or eight inches to try and feather down that edge and make it easier for a wheelchair for instance to roll up there that's not a process we're planning on using this year we'll be doing mostly uh asphalt overlay where we grind the edges down and put in a fresh

1:58:07surface right up to the gutter lip so those areas that that you're speaking of if there are areas that are a little too rough for a wheelchair or stroller to get over we can certainly come out and try and do some touch up on those but we don't anticipate that coming up in this

1:58:22coming year is there a standard for how much that um Edge can be I don't know off the top of my head what that okay I'm kind of I'm just more concerned about what I perceive as the buckling I see in other areas that I've traveled in where it actually gets to be quite substantial and I've

1:58:45been told I don't know if it's true that it's caused by the Heat oh well that's as it's a little different thing where the existing asphalt as it gets to the gutter lip over many years will start to buckle up um you know that's a factor of a lot of things to heat sometimes the weight of

1:59:02if you have bus traffic or truck traffic that'll kind of move the asphalt around a little by little over the years and that's just a maintenance effort to come down and grind down those humps until it's due for an overlay where all that gets taken away and you start fresh so

1:59:17is that something you do when it's reported yeah that's just a maintenance effort okay then I then I really probably shouldn't worry about something that I see like that uh no other than to let us know and we'll come out and maintain okay I will do that uh separately are there any other final

1:59:35comments on this item through motion I just can I ask when are we going out to bid for the 2010 work the the locally funded project that's under our control we're hoping to be out at the end of April that's three three weeks away or so good so we're pushing hard for the the federal project we're

1:59:59waiting on an act of Congress literally yeah thank you I move adoption of a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a contract Amendment with the Villa project management in an amount not to exceed 389 000 and approve change orders not to exceed 10 percent or thirty eight

2:00:18thousand dollars hi objections or abstentions none motion carries unanimously with that we will move on to council assignments group and reports on those and I'll start out by saying that I went to um a number of meetings in that regard I went to the mayor's conference on April the 1st our featured

2:00:54speaker was Henry helkin who's the director of planning and research for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and he discussed the guidelines that are being developed on evaluating air quality impacts in environmental documents and really what he talked a lot about was how we should

2:01:14expect improvements in the way these really look at our um concerns where we would not expect to see as much of a impact I guess you would say on our city function and funds as we might otherwise they've really tried to pay attention to the impacts that this would have on

2:01:43local jurisdictions and work through those issues as they're developing the guidelines so they're trying to do what they can for us while at the same time making sure that air quality is protected I don't know if I said that correctly but um that's that was he was he really had

2:02:01a strong message in that regard on that topic then I also attended the committee on Aging meeting and um there were some concerns about reductions in funding for Senior Services and I believe that I that you were forwarded some letters that I received that actually addressed elimination of

2:02:30some senior services that were currently provided by adult education in our West Contra Costa Unified School District and um so we're going to have a lot of seniors who are losing their programs and um that may have and undoubtedly will have an impact on Senior Services you know just simply the

2:02:54volume um sakurakai which is one of the programs has I know over 100 participants for example um anyway then I'll move on to the um I went to whiptack and as you may remember I represent WIC Tac on the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and we did select a new executive

2:03:17director which is a very big deal the prior executive director Bob McCleary has been the only executive director of the contract cost of Transportation Authority which has been in existence for slightly over 20 years and um anyway Randy comes to us from Caltrans he is the head of Caltrans at

2:03:41the state level is the number one person and so we stole him away from the state we're very excited about him and he seems to bring a lot of skills he's he is an engineer but he also seems to have um a human side to him I I think you would say and so we're looking forward

2:04:03to him joining us very shortly and his plan is to move to Contra Costa County he currently lives in Elk Grove so um currently on furlough um I don't know he didn't tell me that's right Friday I should have asked that on Friday yes and I think I I've covered all of the different things that I

2:04:25wanted to cover with that the next one would be I guess Ann Changas absent Bill Jones I just want to say the Integrated Waste Management will be coming up with a budget we anticipate uh final review and hopefully approval this Thursday night this is the budget that also includes

2:04:47the program for the food scrap waste pickup that will begin in Earnest in El Cerrito and Richmond July 1st although we've been doing it for over a year as a test just program and I'll defer to Greg our council member Lyman on maybe reporting out on the jpa um I have sadly have nothing to say

2:05:14about the jpa um I'm not certain we've met in some time and last I heard the construction contracts have not gone out as a result of the delay in an agreement with the state park system about the additional land yeah I'm sorry three occur but I should explain I wasn't able to make the

2:05:32last meeting and not great anyway we're waiting on it there's there's some inpatients with other cities about not not developing a softball field not developing the baseball field but those things are coming it takes money if it wasn't for the efforts of the city

2:05:49of Berkeley quite frankly uh half that field that we see every night in operation and in full use wouldn't have been possible so it's just a process we're going through we'll eventually get the whole plan going councilmember Potter well I just wanted to take a moment to

2:06:05remind everyone again about the artist reception for the El Cerrito staff art show at City Hall which will be Thursday April 8th from 6 30 to 8 30 and that's brought to you by the arts and culture commission and also to remind folks that the human relation commission will be

2:06:22meeting this Wednesday at seven o'clock at City Hall thank you with that um this meeting is adjourned until the next regularly schedule excuse me mayor I've got one report I do have a report the crime prevention committee did meet on on uh March um March 10th and as I reported in my last

2:06:43uh I've reported part of that meeting already but I did want to remind everyone that National Night Out is Tuesday August 3rd and that there will be an organizing event on Saturday July 17th for people who would like to host uh National Night Out um so there will be a event here right

2:07:05at the community center sorry at the community center on the 17th and I was just trying to get to our website to see if I could find the time because I it's not written down in my calendar but it is during the afternoon on the 17th uh and thank you thank you um with that we are adjourned and until

2:07:24our next regularly scheduled meeting on Monday April the 19th thank you all for coming