Special City Council Meeting June 28, 2010

0:00:06I'd like to start by announcing that uh the council met in close session with our uh labor negotiators at 6:30 tonight and um we reached no decisions but we did give direction to our negotiators with that I'd like to call R please council member Jones here council

0:00:26member Lyman here council member Potter here vice mayor changen here and mayor abon here um would would you join me please in I pledge allegiance to the flag uh led by council member Potter I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

0:00:47Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all next on uh this is a uh special meeting of the council so we don't have as many agenda items as we normally do but the next agenda item is Council and staff Communications uh are there any uh

0:01:11Council Communications yeah I'd like to remind everyone the about the uh back to to National Night Out um which is Tuesday August 3rd and in preparation for that we have a community barbecue for people interested in um hosting a national nightout event and that's

0:01:32to 3: thank you I just want to remind folks that on July 9th will be another salano stroll where the Galleries and the shops will be open on Solano Friday night from uh sorry stockt my mistake uh they'll be open from 7il 9:00 St Stockton

0:02:02Avenue okay I would like to make uh two announcements one is to remind everyone that July 4th we will be having our usual uh fantastic event at srio Vista Park um and it will be open from the hours of 10: in the morning until 6:00 p.m. at night and um so I encourage you

0:02:24all to come and join us in all the festivities the live music and um meeting your neighbors and having a great time um with that I would also like to make an announcement um I received a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting in my pack at this time and uh it's

0:02:46recognizing the comprehensive annual financial report for the fiscal year June 30th 2009 uh we qualified for a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial report reporting and it's the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial

0:03:05reporting and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management and I would especially like to uh thank Mary Dodge but I don't know if she's here um and um I believe I don't know who else I should thank perhaps Scott if you want to mention any

0:03:28names that that that's fine okay great um so I I'm assure that at some future date we will actually have a more formal presentation um with that uh we'll move on to the next item on the agenda which is oral Communications from the public and that's for items that are not

0:03:47already on the agenda if you want to speak on an item that is on the agenda then you can do so uh at that time and um do we have any speaker slips for items not on the agenda we have one Denise [Music] sster good evening um my misunderstanding I didn't understand

0:04:14that before your close session I was allowed to address you so I would have been here at 6:30 my reading of the agenda did not give me that indication um I was out of town when the city debated the two budgets however I reviewed the recordings not on the website but that have been provided to

0:04:29me as well as the materials and fundamentally I'm very concerned that the budgets may be seriously flawed and I believe some of the assumptions may be overstated I'm not going to address these individual areas here but needless to say I think the city is chasing a

0:04:42downward Trend with many unrealistic projections which could put the City's health at even greater risk you are considering now asking employees to take a pay cut um while I can appreciate you may you may be doing this I don't think it's the right step at this point I

0:04:58think it should be the last step in of financial viability and operation sustainability plan there are three decisive and immediate steps which I believe should be pursued in the alternative at this time number one is to roll back the headcount of non non-safety employees and pairing down or

0:05:14alighting Personnel the non-safety side of Els Sero has grown approximately 50% in The Last 5 Years this is an extraordinary growth and it's a great source of budget pressure today there also needs to be limited defined executive team based with core functions to the city's operations the city is

0:05:31operating in an out of touch Financial reality with too many people at undefined uh management levels and there needs to be a stop to this second uh we need a right sizing of the operation the city should Implement a financial plan that does not chase the downward

0:05:47Financial Trend but gets ahead if some of the economists are correct and even one that spoke today on the BBC International he believes that the next three fiscal years could be even more challenging than the year that we've already disc has gone through pretty

0:06:00scary thought number three is aligned compensation with the private sector the financial Advisory board has discussed the city's compensation issues during at least four meetings that I have participated in since November council member Lyman was there at each and every

0:06:14one of these meetings and the discussions um of their of the meet the discussions that were held there should be reflected in the minutes as well to show that The Fab has deep deep concerns about the city's compensation policies and it believes that the city needs to

0:06:29make fundamental changes in order to maintain a sustainable operation we do have a spending problem in the city I've raised that before the budget is chasing downward declining revenues we don't see a positive trend coming even if the city is able to raise the tax rate which I'm

0:06:46not sure it is and even if you are able to attract new vendors which I'm not sure you can fast enough in order to fundamentally change the outcome for the next year maybe possibly two I think that the city needs to get ahead of the curve by by right sizing the non-safety

0:07:01side of the operations rationalizing pay and benefits by position level and cap or limit benefits and benefit of crws to make it more sustainable these are just initial steps but these are the right steps to take and not to take a pay cut that should be the last step thank

0:07:20you no other speakers thank you at this time with that we'll move on to agenda item four on our agenda um which is an extension of the moratorium on the approval and issuance of conditional use permits for wireless communication facilities and um this is a public

0:07:40hearing so um we will um first we'll have a um we will provide an opportunity to hear testimony from the public regarding this item and I will request a presentation from staff and then the council will hear testimony from the public if you wish to speak during the public hearing and have not

0:08:07submitted a uh speaker request please do so now and you can get a speaker slip over here on uh Your Right In The Box and um then submit it to the city clerk who's also up here on the on the right and remarks are limited to 3 minutes per speaker and after everyone

0:08:32has had an opportunity to speak at the public hearing that wants to I will seek a motion from uh Council to close the public hearing and the city council will deliberate um first we'll start with the staff report um Jennifer would you like to present that report please good

0:08:50evening mayor and council members I'm Jennifer Carman on the planning manager um staff is here tonight to request that the council adopt an urgency order ordinance extending the 45-day moratorium previously adopted on May 17th for an additional period of 10 months and 15

0:09:07days um since May 17th staff has started the re research process to explore how other jurisdictions have addressed these facilities and to determine what new and alternative options may be available to regulate this use extending this moratorium will allow staff to continue

0:09:23the research process and study opportunities to encourage the use of new technology that would eliminate or reduce the need for these facilities in accordance with government code section 6585 d a status report of the measures taken to date was available for public

0:09:38review on June 18th 2010 and that's all I have for this evening okay thank you um with that if there are no questions from the council are there any i' like to go ahead and open the public hearing and hear comments from the public uh as I said before each each speaker will have three minutes to

0:10:00present comments although you don't have to use all three minutes and if you want to just say that you agree with previous speakers that's fine to do so also uh with that I'll ask the city clerk to please call the names our first speaker is Aaron neighbor howdy um my name is Aaron

0:10:21neighbor I am a civil engineering student at San Jose State University um I'm going to talk about ionizing radiation real quick and I know that's not the issue here ionizing radiation is generally what people think about when they do think of radiation in the public

0:10:32sphere that's x-rays gamma rays alpha particles beta particles and what that is is those are very highly energetic waves very very very small frequencies somewhere around 10 to the 19th as far as cycles per second very fast now hard x-ray radiation which you're familiar with in the hospital is

0:10:49about 12,000 to 120,000 Electro electron volts of ionizing potential that's what can cause and be carcinogenic and therefore mutogenic and therefore change of DNA what we are talking about however is non-ionizing radiation microwave radiation or highfrequency radio

0:11:04frequency uh is somewhere closer to one one millionth of an electron Vault this is a factor of 10 to 100 billion difference microwave radiation is defined as anything between 1 meter and 1 millimeter in wavelength I've calculated out what the cell phone tower that would be producing from T-Mobile

0:11:23they're broadcasting at 1.9 GHz and their G3 service is broadcast at 1.7 G gz for their Advanced wireless service what that means is the frequency that they're broadcasting at is about 6 in tall when it enters the human body it's about 2 in tall the thermal effects from

0:11:38this microwave radiation is very very small incredibly small in fact it was put um in late June 2010 so very recently the largest cell tower health risk assessment on children concluded and children is very important here because they are much more susceptible than adults are to radiation so they

0:11:53would be the what you call a non-rigorous procedural study you would do that first before You' move on to more rigorous studies um they say quote no risk levels or quote levels uh of individual exposure to radio frequencies are much lower from cell towers than from mobile phones themselves and so

0:12:10when I saw the person who just spoke before me set their cell phone here and then say how a cell tower six miles away is going to be dangerous because this is broadcasting about 0.1 watts to about two Watts at Peak power usage that cell phone tower will have about 12 channels

0:12:25they can't go over a th000 Watts 1,000 Watts that's enough light to do about this if they're plugging into an electrical grid the broadcast energy on that to receive the same amount of energy as this cell phone sitting right here you would have to be about one foot

0:12:38away from the antenna suspended 150 ft in the air to get that same ionizing effect the National Cancer Institute um or sorry the American Cancer Society puts it this way quote in fact in order to expose to levels um at or near FCC limits to Cellular of PCS frequencies an individual would oh am I

0:12:57out of time almost well all right um let me just skip to this then the American Cancer Society do cell phone towers cause any other health problems while high levels of radio frequency waves can cause a warming of the tissue cellular phone towers do not yield exposure at level sufficient to cause

0:13:15this effect there is no evidence in published scientific reports that cell towers cause any other health problems and we're about to hear an argument I believe that somehow there's another causitive effect that cell phone towers can have on the human body and you have

0:13:29understand there must be a causitive effect what they'll probably argue is that there's an electrical field that somehow affects the ions in your blood the potassium the sodium and the way your proteins and your cell walls ingest this however the forcing in this has

0:13:41been calculated to be so minute the mest pressure and and chemical bonding would severely overpower it people who agree with me are few in number World Health Organization interfone American Cancer Society National Cancer Institute the FDA FCC CDC national toxicology Pro

0:13:58program International Agency for research on cancer the EPA the National Council on radiation protection the National Institute on Environmental Health Sciences International Commission on non- intoxic or ionizing radiation protection the international radiation

0:14:10Protection Association the international electronics and Engineers Association and you are out of time all the alphabet organizations overseas thank you Jeff Peters hello uh my name is Jeff Peters and I am a resident of Els Sero um I will live within 500 feet of um the

0:14:35proposed Tower but I'm not really here just because of this proposed Tower I'm here because I don't want to see the city of Els Sero become a place that just filled with Towers um and I believe that um the city has to um redo their ordinances and um so that this just does

0:14:58doesn't happen because of cities around us have already done that to slow down Towers going up um so I believe that the to uh the um ordinance should be or I'm sorry the um moratorium moratorium um should be um Extended and something be done about it um i' I'd also like if there's a

0:15:24possibility that public input can be um dealt with it would love to be able to help with that um so thank you I just I hope that you guys will continue with it byebye Pam Bennett hi I'm Pam Bennett at [address removed] bulard um just wanted to reinforce the support of the moratorium

0:15:57in Elso and and um the community's support for this um it's very important to have a Wireless plan for Els cero given the continued changes in the industry and obviously the very mixed um information that's out there um that really warrants precaution to be used um

0:16:16one of the things it's very complex um area so I think it really needs the time to be able to understand get a lot of background on um what's available what we can do as a city so I really support being able to um have the the team that's looking at this have the time to

0:16:36be able to do that so I think um given the complexity and the importance for the city that um you know this this be extended um just wanted to bring to the attention that there's been several cities that have looked at updating their ordinances Burbank California

0:16:53recently Glendale California and Richmond um had had done a while back all since Els seros was um done further back so those would be good examples to take a look at um these also had uh Community involvement um people that you know understood a lot of what was um out

0:17:17there what some of the short fallings were what was available so I'd encourage also um to involve the community in some of that uh input as well um one of thing I had written to the city was also that wireless is um pretty complex there's a lot of different um Wireless that's in

0:17:38our environment and there's ones that you can um uh do yourself like the cell phones and there's others like Towers or right now the smart meters that um you know you don't have a choice on if it's put in your house so wanted to make sure that the complexity of the situation was

0:17:57being looked at um and to see whether the smart meters was included in the mix of this um because also that wouldn't be something that was voluntary um so I think that's it thank you for your time thank you Marty Keel hi I am I live in on bellw court I'm a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley in

0:18:28the department of society and the environment and I I want to really thank the city council and the City attorney for taking the time to look at this issue it it is a complex issue and and I think it's really what number of communities are realizing around the country is that the existing standards

0:18:48are grossly inadequate and what would happen if we weren't to take the time out to do the ordinance correctly is that we would become a Dumping Ground for s towers that aren't going to be allowed in other communities so I just want to really thank the council members

0:19:04and City attorney for that um what was said earlier about the um how this is ridiculous to be worried about cell towers I would like to respectfully say is ridiculous because um it he was only talking about the thermal effect and that is the problem with the FCC

0:19:26standards which are only based on short-term thermal effect and it and as the bioinitiative report demonstrates which the speaker had not read it was the long-term nonthermal effect that was causing the most serious problems with cancer Alzheimer neurological damage and

0:19:47DNA damage and it's difficult for people to understand that because we're we're taught to think that strength necessarily equates with creating a problem but it isn't always the strength of the the frequency at times sometimes a stronger one can set up a a a reaction

0:20:06the immune system to repair and a weaker one doesn't do that so I just wanted to mention that um in terms of the smart meters you know I just think you know the moratorium can take into to take you know we we'll need to take into account that in in terms of the health impact we

0:20:24don't know how the smart meter frequencies are going to interact with cell towers and so it may turn out that they are exceeding the FCC limits and which are already in my opinion very inadequate and as I was pleased to see that the Burbank ordinance uh from the

0:20:44sounds of it we just got this information today did take into account the F whether the existing towers that were going to PL be placed were meeting the S the FCC standards so this is another another thing that I think would be important to take into account so I

0:21:02just um again want to you know urge um support of the moratorium and taking the necessary time to consider this issue in in detail and um the last thing I want to mention in terms of the the the studies because people will read studies that say no problem is that if you look at the

0:21:25microwave newsletter uh you will see that the the funding looks at the funding source whether it's military whether it's military and industry or whether it's independent studies and the discrepancy is astounding and you can imagine which way it goes obviously the

0:21:41independent studies show serious problems thank you Harry bril hello chair and members of the uh Council I'm I'm delighted to have an opportunity to say a few words and there will be few words a uh uh T-mobile wants to build as you know a 78t tower uh on the Boy Scout cam you should also know

0:22:09that T-Mobile itself commissioned a study a commissioned a study which I have um to evaluate the impact of uh cell tower and electromagnetic radiation the study concluded the study concluded that that there was a higher cancer rate among uh those who were exposed to electromagnetic radiation

0:22:35this is a study commissioned by the very the very uh company that wants to put up a 78t tower recently I'm sure all of you heard about this 13 country study uh half of which was paid for by the wireless industry and my view the study had all kind of problems with it

0:22:58and yet despite that as the Wall Street Journal it's right there as a Wall Street Journal mentioned the uh cancer rate was uh brain cancer rate was 40% higher among heavy users by heavy users were those who use the uh cell phone at least a half hour a day and that is the

0:23:20average amount of time that Americans use cell phone there is no question we're talking about two studies I uh paid for in part or fully by by the industry itself and certainly they are not biased against cell phones quite the contrary um what I am concerned about is

0:23:45that we do not do irreversible damage uh there's no pressing need to put up a cell tower now if you go up in the hills you could talk on a cell phone and my daughter doesn't live very far from here which is why I got involved in this issue uh because I'm concerned

0:24:05about my daughter I'm concerned about my my three-year-old uh uh young uh grandchild and my 5-year-old grandchild and I I I urge that we do not do irreversible damage and uh and to proceed on the side of caution uh there is a great deal more evidence than I have an opportunity uh

0:24:32uh to report uh here about irreversible damage I'm not simply talking about health issues uh I'm talking about a problem we're facing anyhow without cell towers the decline in property values I got a huge decline in my property value and uh and then uh if people are going

0:24:52to feel and there a growing awareness that there might be a problem and that's going to discourage people from uh wanting to buy homes in those places okay I'm I'm sorry but you're out of time okay and and finally it's not good for the city itself it could cost us

0:25:10ultimately a lot of Revenue it could be very expensive thank you for your time thank you byebye the last speaker slip is Diane brener hi I'm Diane brener I'm an elsita resident homeowner thank you for your consideration about uh extending this moratorium again um I just want to caution you to

0:25:36not be misled by the fact that current regulations that that current safety standards are being met already by equipment um the current safety standards do not reflect the current state of the technology nor the current usage patterns as Dr Brill uh referenced current average usage is 28 minutes and

0:25:58studies done early on which is you know could be a decade or more ago were talking about heavy usage at 30 minutes so we're way up there in terms of usage and the the consequences of that um also uh another I want to emphasize another Point made by an earlier speaker

0:26:19um month by month week by week there are more and more articles getting out there in major media Outlets about cautionary usage of cell phones and the need to be cautious the need not to have it touching your body ever when it's turned on not to use it in a car because it's

0:26:36working harder and more radiation is collecting and held inside a car which is a metal metal structure um this month there's a big article in Vogue magazine last month I can't remember what other magazine but there was one in another magazine there's articles in the times

0:26:53in the journal Wall Street Journal um more and more people are becoming more and more aware so I'm we're really glad that you're considering this issue here um another speaker earlier made reference to this Tower that's six miles away um it's not six miles away from my

0:27:10house my house is a few hundred feet from that and there are dozens of houses as you know within a few hundred feet of the proposed site don't lose sight sight of that fact either um as you're considering your new ordinance I would also like to suggest that part of your

0:27:24requirement may be that the uh a company who's proposing a tower should perhaps demonstrate need for it um verifiable need for any additional facilities that they might put up thank you very much thank you and are there any other I know there are no more slips right now but

0:27:44are there any other members of the public who would like to speak on this item okay not uh seeing any we will close the public hearing you need a motion to close yeah Mo motion to close second all in favor I any opposition or um I think that was unanimous okay thank you so now the

0:28:08public hearing is closed and we will move on to comments or questions from the council uh I said a lot of um last time we talked about this my position hasn't changed I just want to reiterate that I'm looking at this moratorium as um a study of the overall City and not just

0:28:32one area but all areas um I'm concerned about Aesthetics and the amount of uh traditional towers that uh may be placed in the city uh I'm looking at the moratorium uh primary reasons are for the techn te technical advantages uh advances excuse me um in the delivery of radio frequency

0:28:58need to study that and also uh to study the um uh the future use and therefore the future uh needs of radio frequency delivery and those services that are coming online now that will require more and more um uh band on this um the moratorium I think it just needs

0:29:24to be said uh has not B is not based on health concerns that's not part of the city's uh domain we know we do not have the resources to challenge the federal government on this and therefore um this is not a reason that I'm looking for the moratorium uh and I just wanted to uh

0:29:47bring this up that there was two items in the news over the weekend about telecommunication one is that the White House is looking to increase the amount of bandwidth that will be available for commercial use and it is because they're estimating within the next 5 years an

0:30:08increase in wireless data of between 20 and 45 times the 2009 level um and this is because of the in the dramatic increase in smartphones netbooks and other wireless devices the other one is that Congress in particular the Democrats are launching an effort to look at and

0:30:31rewrite the Telecommunications Act um I that is the proper for I believe to study other issues that the city cannot by law consider and it'll be very interesting to see how that pans out but um it's about time that the federal government take a look at that that 1996

0:30:54Act was a bad one when it was passed and it hasn't gotten any better over the years so I'm I'm happy to see that and therefore I am for extending the moratorium and giving the staff and the community time to study the issue thank you well I just want to thank everybody

0:31:14for coming out and expressing themselves tonight I think it's pretty clear that there's a fair amount of confusion about the risk of uh cell phone towers versus the risk of cell phones themselves and versus the risk that we all face being exposed in the modern world to the

0:31:31variety of uh chemicals radiation traffic hazards and everything else that's out there I think it's clear that the science on cell phone towers is inconclusive but that there's a desire to take a precautionary principle um and I think part of that should be to remind

0:31:48ourselves that we should reduce our unsafe cell phone usage and try to live healthy lives in general um I did vote for the 30-day moratorium and I'm prepared to support a continuation of the moratorium for the 10 months but I do urge staff to move forward quickly um

0:32:06to develop a new ordinance that really focuses on land use compatibility which is the focus of our current um zoning ordinance and also to look at possibilities for bundling the utilities and also to um ensure the physical safety of the location of the towers and

0:32:25the other supporting structures since elero is um has a hyr fart passing through as well as um extensive Landslide uh deposits on the hill and we know that we have had trouble citing other um large towers and Utilities in the area so I think we need to look at all those points um and I look forward

0:32:48to seeing public involvement and development of a revised ordinance thank you um I I have to say I I I Echo all the prior council members comments in that it is a very confusing issue um when I was on the Planning Commission I you know we approved the Joanne Fabric

0:33:11um site there and it's it's a commercial use but there's still people um um I appreciate the I guess the time that we'll get to spend some more time to research and and get caught up to speed and and what is act the actual threats and looking having the time to look

0:33:29critically at all the evidence um and and looking forward also to to um getting everybody on the same page of of what the evidence um is out there um I think I would look ask staff to you know in in light of the land use compatibility issue also layer on an equity perspective um because there is

0:33:51you know it's we have different populations from the hills to the flats and varying um income levels that result in different levels of participation and then that's something I I do um want to flag that you know it's not something we're burdening one Community with over

0:34:10another and um so that's I would like that to be considered in in the review but otherwise I support um the extension of the the moratorium um in addition to Mr Jones's uh comments about Aesthetics Miss Potter's uh comments about the safety of the towers that associate with the

0:34:29Hayward fault uh I would like to make sure that staff is looking at the property values the perceived whether it's real or perceived if there is data out there that say does support the reduction of property values I would like to have that information brought forward thank you okay thank you um I'll

0:34:48bring it back and uh just state that I think um most of the uh issues that were just brought up were contained in the um proposed ordinance that's in our staff packet and they do list the reasons for which we would be doing that which I'm going to just for the record State um

0:35:09which is to fully understand the impact associated with the installation of Wireless telecommunications facilities in the city that require conditional use permit Safeguard against the intrusion of incompatible and potentially disruptive uses that cause blight and um

0:35:26survey re res residents of elero for information about use and preferences regarding uh Wireless telecommunications facilities um so these and then we need to identify Consultants to conduct a study of existing regulations and opportunities to encourage new technologies and explore

0:35:49regulatory options that are consistent with state and federal law for better managing minimizing the safety of setic collocation and additional management issues implied implicated implicated by the potential pration of Wireless Communications facilities in those areas

0:36:08of the city and ascertain whether they are are regulations or other measures that the city could consider undertaking to encourage the implementation of new technology to deliver Wireless Communications services without the use of facilities that require conditional

0:36:25use perm so these this is an extensive list and one of the things that I would note most about that is it's going to take some time to do that having said that I do um agree with what was said previously that we need to um do it as quickly as possible but that is an extensive list

0:36:45and therefore I think we do need to get of it adequate time so that we do an adequate job of doing it and um so with that um are we ready to consider a motion I just wanted to um reiterate that this is a moratorium only on towers that would require a use permit and also

0:37:05to get a reminder if this is um requires a 4 F vote Yes according to our it does it does yes so I'm ready someone do you want to make a motion um let's see my if you want go ahead I can I move to approve by title in way of any further readings of the urgency ordinance of the

0:37:27city of elero making findings and extending a Citywide moratorium on the issuance of conditional use permits for Wireless telecommun Communications facilities pending a review of existing regulations of such facilities and study of opportunities to encourage the use of

0:37:47new technology that would eliminate or reduce the need for such facilities I second it okay there's been a motion in second any any further discussion all in favor please say I is does this require a roll call no okay okay all in favor please say I I I uh opposed extensions motion carries

0:38:12unanimously move to adjourn second um all in favor I I think that was unanimous and we will be adjourned until until the next regularly scheduled city council meeting on Monday July 19th at 7:30 p.m. thank you all for coming