Concurrent City Council and Redevelopment Agency Meeting November 15, 2010

0:00:00foreign good evening everyone welcome to this uh special city council meeting um first can we start with roll call please yes yeah councilmember Jones here councilmember Lyman here councilmember Potter here mayor Pro tem Chang here and mayor Abelson here thank you

0:00:28thank you all for coming um the purpose of this special meeting is to have a public Hearing in accordance with section 147f of the Internal Revenue code of 1986 as amended the federal tax equity and fiscal responsibility Act of 1986 Tura for tahia Day School staff recommends that the city council

0:00:54conduct this hearing and adopt a resolution approving the issuance of tax exempt bonds by the Colorado educational and cultural facilities Authority for the purpose of funding tahia day schools phase two Bond refinancing and um in accordance with Section 147 F of the Internal Revenue code of 1986 as

0:01:19amended there is a requirement to hold this public hearing before the city council in order to take public testimony regarding the necessity and appropriateness of tax-exempt financing for a private Day School so with that um we will open up the public hearing for

0:01:40comments or is there a staff report do we do that yes Madam I was going to deliver a short staff report about this just to try to summarize a little bit more briefly the information that is contained in the written staff report tahia Day School is seeking to refinance existing bonds that

0:01:59were used to pay for existing improvements at the schools El Cerrito campus um and an or a public agency called the colorado educational and cultural facilities Authority is offering to issue up to six million dollars in tax-exempt Bonds on behalf of tahia uh there is a provision that you cited

0:02:18of federal law called the tax and Equity fiscal responsibility Act of 1982 which is referred to as tephra which requires the local jurisdiction where the project is located to hold a public hearing regarding the issuance of the bonds it also requires the local jurisdiction to

0:02:34approve the issuance for the purposes of tefl Cerrito is the local jurisdiction so the obligation for the hearing falls on the city council the purpose for the hearing as far as I am aware is just to provide the public with an opportunity to comment on the issuance of these

0:02:48bonds since they will be tax exempt I've been through several of these and it is somewhat of a murky process but I my understanding is that the theory is that a local hearing will provide a better opportunity for the bringing to light of any pertinent information regarding the

0:03:06bonds but their federal law does not provide any criteria for evaluation and in my experience substantive issues don't arise in these proceedings it's this is really a procedural requirement for local non-profit entities to be able to access tax exempt financing I did

0:03:24have a few things that I wanted to note for for the public record um just to clarify some things that these bonds are not and cannot become an obligation of the city they will not be public debt there's solely an obligation of tahia day school they're not intended

0:03:37to be used for any expansion of the school's El Cerrito campus it's our understanding that they are a refinancing of existing bonds that have already been used to pay for past work and the staff report the written one does reference that the school does have some plans for a future phase of

0:03:53improvements to the campus but the bonds at issue tonight are not intended to finance that work any future work at the campus would of course have to go through the standard permitting process so the staff recommendations to open the public hearing hear any comments from

0:04:06the public by motion close the public hearing discuss the matter and adopt the attached resolution it's my understanding that Amy Cody um the tahiya's CFO is in the audience tonight and is available to answer any questions questions from the council before opening the public hearing I was curious

0:04:28if a similar resolution was passed on the original issuance of the bonds or is it the particular agency that has triggered this requirement I actually don't know the answer to that but I but I I think that that it is I don't believe it happened before I mean it may be that the that it is another

0:04:45the agency that's issuing the bonds may actually be the trigger for the requirement but yes um hi everyone um I guess I didn't have to come up here it's that it's a it's another jurisdiction it's another state so it has to they may we have this exact same hearing happening over there not

0:05:03tonight on a different night but so so is it corrected earlier um financing was conducted in California yes they were California Statewide Revenue yeah I do I have a question more of a just to get to the fine point I think of what you said um it does say in our city involvement

0:05:25that we're approving the issuance of the obligation but I want to confirm that we're not approving the use of that uh issuance no really the the resolution is it is it's somewhat of a unique use of the word approve but that is the word that's used I mean the city is not issuing any

0:05:43debt the city is not taking on any obligations and the city is not approving any particular use of the money all it is doing is saying that we've reviewed the we've held a hearing we've reviewed the matter and the issuance of the bonds is acceptable to us thank you

0:05:59okay so um this time I would like to open the public hearing and I'm not sure if this follows Planning Commission protocol but what I remember from being a planning commissioner is that the applicant would speak do we do that in this process yeah this is this isn't a Planning Commission

0:06:19like quasi-judicial hearing this is really just an opportunity for public comment um obviously Miss Cody if she wants to can can comment as a member of the public but there's no requirement that she sort of present the school's case on the matter as it were okay so at this

0:06:34time the public hearing is open and I would like to ask our city clerk if we have any speakers uh I have no speaker slips for this item okay so then at this time I will close the public hearing and it's now time then for Council deliberation any comments or is there a motion

0:06:53I'll move that a resolution of the city council the city of El Cerrito approving a tax exempt financing to be issued by the Colorado education and cultural facilities Authority for the benefit of tahia Day School missions motion carries unanimously with that uh the public

0:07:19the special meeting is closed and at this time we will convene the concurrent city council Redevelopment agency meeting um and we will start with the note that the council members are still here from the special meeting and go on to the pledge of allegiance to the flag led by council

0:07:44member Potter 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 foreign staff Communications I would just like to make a comment I'd like to acknowledge well let me back up I it's my opinion that if you have

0:08:24quality a community there are certain decisions that you make as a community to go forward even if maybe the time isn't right to do so and I think we had one of those with measure R so I'd like to thank the citizens and residents of El Cerrito for their support

0:08:45and their faith in the in the council as we go forward I think it will uh greatly add to our progress as we go forward and the economy gets better so thank you yeah and along those lines I wanted to extend my great gratitude appreciation to the city staff in El Cerrito I know

0:09:07many of the firefighters police officers and staff from all the department helped very much in the effort to educate the community about measure R to get the word out they worked a long walking precincts and I really appreciate that and there were others involved members

0:09:23of the community residents Council people who helped with the effort and I think the whole Community is grateful for that effort and they spoke very clearly about their desire to maintain our high level of service so thank you all I see some of you in the room tonight and if you could extend our

0:09:39appreciation to the others in the police and fire department be great they did work on their own time I think it should be pointed out I would definitely want to Echo my thanks to staff to the community who approved it 9 19 over the the nose and to the council who

0:10:01put a great deal of effort as well thank you I'll thank everyone thank the public for voting yes on it but I also want to uh point out that on that we do have in our consent calendar appointment of somebody to the crime prevention committee and I'm going to take this opportunity to

0:10:21make sure that people know that we are still accepting I think we are I'm gonna look at the clerk we are still accepting applications for the crime prevention committee that's I'm liaison to that I'm sure we're accepting applications for all of our uh committees and and uh

0:10:37boards so I'm hoping that people will hear this go on to the website and look at the opportunities that are out there for you to help make the community a better place okay thank you everyone and perhaps I could ask the um city clerk to tell us the uh time for when all those

0:10:58applications are due the due date is November 30th November 30th yes so if you're interested in uh seeing what's uh out there and filling out an application I believe that can be obtained online and on the city website and it's due by the end of this month November 30th

0:11:17thank you thank you so I believe everyone has I mean then their comments right except for me and I just wanted to first of all um mentioned that I attended a celebration of the Arts or unless you want to do that Sandy okay on October 23rd here at City Hall um which I thought was a very fantastic

0:11:44event if you came there was a movie there was a heart playing in the background there was um an art show of employee art which was once again quite fantastic and original and interesting and it's still up on display I believe and I hope you stay tuned for future events and uh look at

0:12:09our art gallery upstairs and see what's there our climate team has been quite busy in a number of ways and one of those ways was that there was Community Workshop held on October 26th talking about the transportation component of the climate action plan and the next one will be

0:12:33actually it was on November 13th excuse me and then the next one will be which is the third of a series will be on December the 2nd Thursday from seven to nine here in the council chambers and I hope that you'll consider coming um the um other thing I'd like to mention

0:12:53is that on November the 17th Congressman garamendi's staff will be here at City Hall and they will be holding a um meetings with constituents who are interested in help on federal issues you can either just come between the hours of 10 and 2 or you can call to make an appointment

0:13:18if you want to call for an appointment the phone number to call is 925-932-8899 and the other the last thing I'd like to mention is as I was reading materials that came in my Council packet this time we got a report from East Bay mud about what's going on at East Bay mud and they

0:13:43noted um there we were in that article in one of the Articles talking about the water smart practices for businesses and we if you may remember received an award for that and it was featured in this article um when I turned to Western city which is put out by the league of California

0:14:03cities I found a mention of a program in El Cerrito and and I just like to read this real quickly in an interesting twist the city of El Cerrito uses an Innovative program to finance Energy Efficiency upgrades and retrofits it loans itself money the city's energy and

0:14:22water efficiency program is a result revolving Loan Fund established by the city to fund projects that improve the resource efficiency of City operations El Cerrito uses a portion of the savings from those improvements to repay the Loan Fund and invest in additional water

0:14:40and Energy Efficiency program C City established the program with funds from its capital Improvement budget and a startup Grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District so it's really kind of refreshing to open up Publications like that and see the city of El Cerrito

0:14:58Manchester and I'd like to thank staff for doing the work that makes that happen thank you with that is are there any staff announcements okay seeing none we'll move on to oral Kate Communications from the public which is an opportunity for members of the public to speak on items that are

0:15:19not on the agenda do we have any speaker slips speaker slips okay with that then we're going to move on to item number four on our agenda which is presentations and um the presentation we have before us today is um an award from the International Association of chiefs of police

0:15:40from the law enforcement Challenge and it's going to be presented by Stephen benini who's our police lieutenant good evening Madam Aaron city council members I'm happy to be back once again we uh I attended a conference for the International Association of chiefs of

0:16:03police and at that conference they were giving away the highway traffic safety awards and I was happy to be there on behalf of the city of Australia El Cerrito Police Department as we finish third in our category of 26 to 50 officers this is a big deal for us because it's a

0:16:20nationwide type of competition that judges a traffic safety and the efforts that are men and women from the police department have put forward when our Traffic Unit began it was somewhat uh small and we didn't have a focus as to what it is that we were going to do with

0:16:37our programs a couple years after the program began we implemented some things that I find we're one of the few agencies around that do that that are our size we have commercial enforcement officers in our Traffic Unit we have officers that are assigned as child safety seat

0:16:53technicians so they can inspect child safety seats we're part of the opposite traffic safety and their grant funding program we were ordered a grant this year for the first time and we do several other things partner with John Muir health and do some things that get us out there in the community

0:17:08Beyond just issuing a citation our tracking unit developed to focus toward safety within the city of El Cerrito and as a result of that Focus we were able to reduce collisions with inner city for five straight years we went from a high of about 575 collisions per

0:17:23year down to about 375 this past year so that helps out our citizens because more people are injured as a result of traffic safety collisions or vehicle collisions than any other type of crime that you can come up with there's more officers that are killed in the line of

0:17:40duty in traffic collisions and there are by firearm or assault from Suspects so traffic safety is not only important to our community it's important to our people who work for our Police Department as well now about the award ceremony itself there were 103 award categories for the

0:17:57International Association Chiefs of police now those 103 award categories 42 States participated of those 42 States just seven California law enforcement agencies received an award two of those agencies were very very large the San Diego County Sheriff's Department in California have Patrol

0:18:13of the agencies that had less than 100 officers El cereal Police Department was the only agency that received an award so we did an outstanding job the men and women of our Police Department did an outstanding job of staying on on task and realizing what traffic safety was

0:18:28all about so with me today are those people assigned to the traffic safety units officer John malka officer Chris Purdy and officer Sid Hubbs although they are not the only people that are dedicated to traffic enforcement and traffic safety they are the driving force behind some of the

0:18:46programs that I've mentioned these are the guys that get called out for commercial vehicle inspections those big unsafe vehicles that are rolling down San Pablo Avenue these are guys that take part in the office of traffic safety Grant funded events and these are

0:19:00officers that are inspecting here child safety seats out there so I'm very pleased to present the award for the International Association of chiefs of police we finished third in our category and it's a huge recognition for a department our size I'd like to thank

0:19:13you all and thank the officers that are here with me today for their outstanding performance thank you guys [Applause] thank you very much that's really exciting news and I know how much we've heard from our community about how important it is to them too so it's it's

0:19:40really gratifying to see that um the work that you have done to make it a reality has paid off in in the saving of lives and the betterment of our community and and thank you yes thank you I just like to say I'm glad we have a department that makes news on with

0:20:02positive things this is great Nationwide did I understand you correctly Nationwide were the only agency with less than 100 officers that got an award only California in California less than 100 officers that receive an award correct that's great well thank you very

0:20:19much the hard work and training that you put in as well as time out on the streets and uh dealing with people who don't think they should be pulled over I appreciate your efforts on that thank you once again we're really proud of the police department and um I think Lieutenant

0:20:36Benin has said it before that you do the hard job of trying to modify people's behavior and I know that my behavior has been modified driving and I appreciate that and I want everybody out there to know that enforcement is a difficult thing but we need to look at what it

0:20:51means to create a safer community and I think that we've done really well with the cars and that we can continue to improve with pedestrians and bikes and I want to let folks know because this has happened since the last meeting that there are two athletes at El Cerrito

0:21:05High who are not able to compete right now because of either pedestrian or bike Collision so I know we have more work to do and it's not um it's not about this award or the work you've done but a reminder to everybody who's driving around when the time is changing and the

0:21:20light is changing and when people are in a hurry to be thoughtful and to slow down and to think of about everybody's safety with all due respect I just want to ask are you going to take your Racing Stripes off the car they just made me look fast and I just wanted to clarify you said

0:21:41the compared to last year we went down uh 200 collisions or 350 five-year period in a five-year period okay in 2005 we had 575 collisions in the city of El Cerrito yeah as of this year we had 374.

0:21:56it's fantastic I mean over that that time period I mean it's obviously a decline every year and um those are real dollars in people's time and you know family incomes and just pain and suffering that you know is avoided as uh uh uh casualty of a bicycle accident myself

0:22:16um it's it's really great thank you thank you and and I want to thank you for uh being uh doing the job you're doing because I know it's not a popular job to stop somebody and say you know you ran rolled through that stop sign or you entered that crosswalk inappropriately and I

0:22:34know that we certainly hear about the few people who take offense at what you're doing but as council member Chang just uh pointed out there's a lot of property savings and a lot of injury savings as a result of the awareness that and the teaching that you guys are

0:22:50doing through your opportunities and that's fantastic and uh you know I think it really is making it better El Cerrito as a result so thank you very much thank you thank you that will move on [Music] [Applause] with that we'll move on to item five on the agenda which is the adoption of the

0:23:11consent calendar item 5A through 5G like to pull C please okay any other items okay is there motion um I'll make a motion to adopt um items 5A b d e f and g is there a second I'll second it okay there's been a motion in a second all in favor please say aye aye aye opposition

0:23:39abstentions motion carries unanimously with that we'll go to item number c which is just a resolution to support the get connected program yes uh first of all I want to say that I the overall goal and overall purpose of of this program um I support but um if you'll let me point out a few

0:24:03things I'd appreciate it um things that bother me about it and maybe uh we can amend a couple things that would help out in that regard and that is what bothered me this in two or three areas of the resolution which is a boy I take it as a boilerplate resolution yeah

0:24:26um it basically says bypassing this bypassing this resolution uh we are supposed to do a few things such as set appropriate policies in our land use and economic development plans as well as direct the city manager and other appropriate departments to determine how to optimize the use of

0:24:52broadband technology of which that's been a goal for us and it has been instituted as far as transparency in government over the last few years although I take it the webcam still isn't working oh it is yeah so we're it's in operation but I I have a problem in that when we set goals in

0:25:17direct uh departments to do things and and make it goals for them to go out we usually have a discussion with the council at a goal setting meeting or other appropriate meeting to determine whether this is a good use of of times and resources and so what I'd like to do is suggest a

0:25:41couple of changes that would I think satisfy what they're trying to get which is El Cerrito city of El Cerrito support and yet satisfy me in particular in that we do things in an appropriate manner so on the second page the second be it further resolve or the second paragraph I'd like to like

0:26:04it to read and be it further resolve that the appropriate policies and promoting and supporting the deployment and Adoption of broadband be considered for inclusion inappropriate land use and economic development plans then the next paragraph be it further resolve that the city

0:26:31council consider as a goal how to optimize the use of broadband technology by residents to increase citizen participation in the use and expansion of digital inclusion then the next paragraph be it further resolved that the city of El Cerrito will share the results of get connected

0:26:55with neighboring jurisdictions and other public agencies and shell send a copy of this resolution to the association of Bay Area governments for appropriate distribution to other local governments and then this last one I I really think again we have a boilerplate resolution asking for the

0:27:18authorization of using our name and printed material and other promotionals without us being a we haven't reviewed those and I I just think as a good business and governmental policy we should review what our name is being used for so I'd like the last uh this last paragraph

0:27:40here be further resolved that the city of El Cerrito will consider authorization or authorizing the use of their names as champions of get connected on websites of the California emerging technology fund and in printed materials pertaining to get connected after reviewing website printed material

0:28:03and other forms of endorsement that's the motion yes okay is there a second I'd like to uh on that last paragraph the fourth one that you just uh proposed I'd like to offer a friendly Amendment um and identify who has the review responsibility otherwise otherwise they

0:28:26potentially have to bring it to council each time so can we authorize the city manager or his designee to conduct this review I would go along with that but then we have to I don't know if if the staff uh is carrying out something that we don't have we haven't given any direction to I

0:28:48mean what's what's appropriate what isn't you know I um I'd go along with that I'd go along with the city manager uh and or the city uh City attorney earlier in the resolution there's the language city manager and other appropriate departments I don't know if that

0:29:10could work here or sometimes you use the designee no and designate would be fine or the City attorney by the city manager declare restate what your motion then becomes it becomes for that one section follow this one section yeah be it further resolve that the city of

0:29:39El Cerrito will consider authorizing the use of their names as champions of get connected on the websites of the California emerging technology fund and in printed materials to get get connected after reviewing website printed material and other forms of endorsement

0:30:02to say who would be doing after reviewing it wasn't that well then there was a friendly Amendment or a suggestion that maybe what we say after the city manager or authorized representative review review and okay yeah is that clear to the city clerk yes thank you

0:30:24okay thank you okay and then so you made a motion and is there a second then okay uh yeah I'll proceed with a second okay any discussion on this item I just wanted to clarify that the motion is approval of item 5c with the three amendments that were presented by Mr

0:30:44Jones right correct okay okay are we ready to vote okay all in favor please say aye aye any opposition abstentions motion carries unanimously we will now move on to item which is a public hearing um about the adoption with local modifications of the 2010 California

0:31:15building standards code including Green Building Code building code fire code and related construction codes good evening Madam mayor council members I'm your city building official Brian Fenty appearing this evening with fire marshal Mike Bond we're here to introduce the public

0:31:37hearing and second reading for the 2010 California building standards codes adoption on October 18 2010 the city council adopted a resolution which made findings justifying changes or modifications in the 2010 California building standards codes due to local climatic geologic or

0:32:01topographical conditions at that time Council also introduced an ordinance which adopts the 2010 California building standards codes including Green Building Code fire code and related construction codes as the codes applicable to all construction within the city of El

0:32:20Cerrito with local modifications as highlighted in the ordinance tonight is the second reading of that ordinance for adoption of those codes and if adopted tonight the 2010 California building standards codes will become effective January 1st 2011.

0:32:42any questions from the did you did you also have something okay any questions from the council okay then at this time I will open the public hearing are there any public speakers no speaker slip submitted okay then we will now close the public hearing a movie close to public hearing okay thank

0:33:04you all in favor I think that was unanimous um are there any comments from Council okay hearing none uh is there a motion I believe I made the motion last time it was exhausting so I'm going to turn it over it's one of your last ones I move adoption of ordinance

0:33:322010-09 by title an ordinance of the city of El Cerrito amending title 16 of the El Cerrito municipal code to adopt with modifications to address unique local conditions the 2010 edition of the California Green Building Code including all appendency appendices there to the

0:33:532010 edition of the California building code based on the 2009 international building code volumes one and two including all appendices there too the 2010 California fire code based on the 2009 international fire code including all appendices there too the 2010

0:34:14edition of the California Administrative Code the 2010 edition of the California residential code based on the 2009 international residential code including all appendices there too the 2010 California plumbing code which is based on the 2009 uniform plumbing code

0:34:34including all appendices there too the 2010 California Mechanical Code based on the 2009 uniform Mechanical Code including all dependencies there too the 2010 California electrical code based on the 2008 National Electric Code including all appendices thereto the California Housing law regulations

0:34:58the 2009 international property maintenance code the 2009 uniform Swimming Pool Spa and hot tub code and the 2009 uniform solar energy code second [Applause] [Laughter] ready to vote all in favor please say aye aye any opposition or abstention motion carries unanimously thank you

0:35:29I wanted to thank Brian Fenty and Fire Marshall battalion chief Captain Michael bond for their efforts on this thank you yes okay with that we will move on to item number seven which is policy matters we will start with a the agreement with the design build entity

0:35:50for construction of the El Cerrito recycling center good evening mayor city council members my name is Melanie Mintz and I'm the city's environmental services division manager I'm pleased to be here tonight to recommend that Council adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute

0:36:20a contract with the design build team pan cow special projects in nolandham architects in an amount not to exceed 2.8 million dollars to design and construct the El Cerrito recycling center and environmental services division offices and to authorize contract amendments for this contract

0:36:36not to exceed 140 thousand dollars with direction from Council City staff has been involved in planning for the redesign and reconstruction of the recycling center for many years we are proud to be here tonight with a project that is modest provides El Cerrito residents with the

0:36:53types of recycling services we've heard from them that they want and represents El Cerrito's commitment to sustainability on many levels in the recent past City Council made decisions that brought this project to the place it is today in 2008 Council authorized switching our

0:37:07curbside recycling operations from processing materials collected curbside curbside on site at the recycling center to hauling them directly from the curb to a recycling processor this enabled staff to lessen the cost of the project and focus on providing focused resources on providing the types

0:37:25of added value services that can't be handled curbside such as collecting hard to recycle items reusable items and specially collected items then in February 2010 Council authorized staff to utilize the design build project delivery method which allowed staff to establish a maximum budget for

0:37:43the project and invite design build teams to compete to provide the city with the best possible project for the price which is we refer to often as the stipulated price the stipulated sum in May 2010 staff pre-qualified six design build teams to submit proposals

0:37:58for the project pre-qualification was based on several mandatory requirements such as safety record and upon a point accumulation process for items such as previous experience on green building projects Community related projects working with cities recycling related projects and for

0:38:15having worked previously together as a team all six pre-qualified teams represented some of the best Bay Area Architects and contractors simultaneous with the pre-qualification process staff work to develop a detailed request for proposals which laid out the process

0:38:31and the Contracting terms as well as provided the Baseline Technical and design requirements for the project the request for proposal package is somewhat Akin in a design build project delivery method to project specifications in a design bid build project delivery method

0:38:48the request for proposals outlined the basis for reward which would be based upon a scoring system consisting of points and two primary primary areas one of them was organization management and approach which included site plan architecture construction management

0:39:03plan approach to recycling operations and customer service as well as points that were accumulated for Best Value quality enhancements all teams were asked to describe how they would meet our Baseline requirements and beyond that to provide their own unique design response to meet

0:39:21our overarching goals of sustainability serviceability flexibility education and importantly customer service enhancement points were awarded for project elements that went beyond our Baseline requirements in service of those goals in September four proposals were

0:39:37received and those teams were all interviewed the interview panel consisted of staff from Environmental Services Public Works Planning and Building as well as Council appointed chairs of the design review board and Environmental Quality committee the recommended design build team pankow

0:39:53Nolan Tam not only did the best job of presenting and meeting our Baseline requirements they provided the most interesting and numerous project enhancements which I will briefly discuss and they will go into in more detail briefly also after my presentation in our Baseline requirements staff

0:40:09stipulated that the project would provide expanded reuse and exchange opportunities improved non-motorized and motorized circulation for staff and customers better separation between back of house and customer service areas more accessible facilities public restrooms

0:40:24public space conference room improved site security the capacity to accept an increased range of hard to recycle or reusable materials and an improved public interface that consisted of for example wayfinding education and information the project was also stipulated to meet

0:40:40lead gold standards and to obtain lead gold certification did an excellent job of doing all of this they also provided a Net Zero Energy facility through providing Energy Efficiency measures daylighting the 100 daylighting of the office space and the provision of 10 kilowatts of solar

0:40:59panels they also provide rainwater harvesting for landscape irrigation and toilet flushing that represents our commitment to sustainability and also saves precious City resources they provide a significant and well-designed signage wayfinding and interpretive program an accelerated

0:41:15schedule and they exceeded lead gold standards and will be providing a lead Platinum facility there are numerous other qualities and features embodied in the pancow Nolan Tam proposal that you've all seen above all the team seems to share a vision and enthusiasm for the for the

0:41:31city's project that is clearly reflected in their design approach again they'll tell you more about their proposed project in a brief presentation at the end of my presentation in regards to next steps if Council elects to authorize staff to conclude contract negotiations with pancow Nolan

0:41:46Tam we would immediately in order to meet our deadlines move into the design process I'm in order again to meet the Milestones that would enable a project to be delivered by Spring 2012.

0:41:58this process will include public meetings meetings with recycling center staff and staff from other departments we plan to initiate the SQL review process go to the Planning Commission have a conceptual review with the design review board on December 1st begin our

0:42:12public meetings mid-December and aim to begin Demolition and construction by early spring after receiving our drb approve approval and building permits um during construction the recycling center will go into interim operations we've already held several public

0:42:27meetings related to this project and we'll continue to do so through the design process in which we will also discuss interim operation activities and as always we'll do expensive extensive public information about those plans in regards to financing of the project

0:42:41the next item on tonight's agenda is for the Project's financing for the purposes of this agenda item the award recommended tonight is for an approved Capital Improvement project and will be paid for solely through the Integrated Waste Management fund and we'll use no

0:42:56general fund Monies the approved Integrated Waste Management 10-year plan includes adequate Revenue stream identified for this project now unless Council has specific questions to my presentation I will turn it over to the pancow Nolan Tam team to introduce themselves provide a brief

0:43:13presentation of the project and then we can both City staff and the project team can entertain questions and answers before they speak I would like to remind you though that their proposal is a concept and it's a strong concept and it represents the contract that the team

0:43:29would have with the city however it hasn't yet undergone the design process so there are details that would still be worked out during design um so again I will now turn it over to the senior project manager from pan cow unless you have questions first for me questions okay great Bill yes uh thank

0:43:46you nice report uh was there a clear second choice you can see in the team in that there's a scoring in the agenda bill right and you can see it is best value so it was there a clear second choice by the way by the scores would be the you know um not so clear there was a clear there

0:44:07would be probably two teams to negotiate with as you could tell one of the teams um actually exceeded the stipulated sum so we would have to we would probably there's two others that we would be our second choice if we were to go there okay and uh in your report did I read it

0:44:24correctly that the solar paneling will support in total is it the whole Center or just part of the whole Center both the office as well as our densifier and Baylor and um the electrical service that would both support our operations as well as the offices so we're looking at near

0:44:43zero cost for electrical we budget about four thousand dollars a year for utilities but we estimate that we would be saving at least 3 400.

0:44:53dollars of that four thousand how much I'm sorry three thousand four hundred dollars is I think what we've calculated uh would be what around four thousand I'm quick four thousand dollars a year yeah forty eight thousand uh four thousand eight hundred if so uh we

0:45:09budget about four thousand dollars a year for our total utilities um and we estimate that those 10 kilowatts would be saving three thousand four hundred dollars of that good um and additionally you can see um we currently don't use a lot of water up there we're kind of um but we will be

0:45:25both doing landscaping that might require some but even our toilet flushing will actually be rainwater harvesting so we'd be saving additional um additional money as well as any natural gas expenditures their proposal actually proposes cutting off the natural gas line and returning the meter

0:45:40we're not sure we want to do that yet but we could there'd be no use of natural gas up there which is one of our larger actual greenhouse gas emissions thank you sounds very good thank you yeah I'm intrigued you do touch on SQL under legal considerations that sicko still is

0:45:58remaining I'm just curious if there's um if you could expand on how the project uh my experience is that projects experience design changes as they go through environmental review and I'd like to have you touch on how that gets dovetailed into the design process

0:46:15because they're obviously parallel processes that will be going on I just want to make sure that we've considered the that that issue yeah we'll be immediately initiating the SQL reviews so that that process will be able to inform the design simultaneously without

0:46:31pulling out my calendar right now I believe that the second drb meeting would be March 2nd or early March and I'm planning to have the sequel review approved by the Planning Commission in February so it'll be long it'll be done before the design process um terminates

0:46:50so they will be going simultaneously I think you can see from The Proposal it provides a lot of excellent information for our project description for our SQL review um so we don't and and overall the recycling Center's use has actually become less since we made the decision

0:47:06to not do the processing so we anticipate that from an overall impact the pre this project is both is a lot less than what's previously been up there but nevertheless you're right it will inform the design as we go through excellent thank you yeah um so quick question about the the

0:47:23Community Gardens and back which look really exciting but I'm I'm interested in how um the rainwater um I guess cistern would if it would be collected all in one central location and be routed out for vegetable growing or was that is it too I guess I would assume it's

0:47:41probably too early to yeah take a three-part answer to that um one is we can actually ask the team more about the rainwater harvesting but I do believe it's one single cistern and so it would be pumped I imagine utilizing the same solar energy that would be collected through the PVS

0:47:57um in terms of the garden there's two proposals part of it was a reflection of how this site is going to become a little bit smaller and we're going to be able to save that upper area for other uses the team has proposed part of that being well establishing the framework for us

0:48:12you know so pose bibs and beds um a part of The Proposal is to actually cultivate some native plants to help restore some of the lower sections of the hillside Natural Area which is pretty exciting and a lot of the public is um kind of brainstormed that idea themselves I think that part was sure is

0:48:28is viable the community garden is more um I think still to be determined by us through the design process and what type of garden that would be because of its location it's not where we've um potentially envisioned a community garden that would be for example residents like the one that's happening

0:48:43at the senior center now we've envisioned that more in kind of denser neighborhoods however there might be and I think we've heard a lot at the Environmental Quality committee some interest in something and so we could see it could be more a community garden to grow plants for ongoing restoration

0:48:56projects throughout so I'm not sure what it would be but their proposal does contain funding for the infrastructure of whatever we would want it to be thank you okay I think we're ready to move on okay great I will then now turn it over and again um myself uh Garth Schultz as you

0:49:15know our environmental analyst who has most in-depth knowledge about our recycling center uh Mario Gonzalez operations supervisor um for the recycling center with the longest knowledge and responsibility of running um our operations up there are both here for if you have any other

0:49:28questions about what we're planning up there after um panco Nolan Tam speaks so right now I'll turn it over to Jim Coyle the senior project manager with pankow special projects introduce you to his team and the project thank you Melanie and good evening mayor council members

0:49:51and staff again my name is Jim Coyle with the ankle Builders we're honored to be here tonight for consideration of this incredible project and it truly is an incredible project and along with my colleague Chris Noel somewhere in the back here there he is um on this great summer evening that we

0:50:08have we're going to walk through our proposal that we submitted and hopefully you'll enjoy as much as we did in putting together just a few Concepts or uh I want to touch on a couple things first the intro of the team and I'll just sort of walk through this you may have known this but

0:50:25ourselves were leading it panko Builders so we'll be the signers of the contract but Nolan Tam is a strong partner of ours Tippy Marr local structural engineer along with GLS Landscapes Susan loubouti with voices and then Sherwood Engineers who's renowned in their green civil

0:50:45engineering Pursuits so they're a great addition to the team then lowercase Productions was actually fantastic in how they conceptualized a lot of our elements that we typically just view in construction terms so and then one major component that I've talked with Brian

0:51:01and other people about is Zeta and their modular ability Builder you guys have one installation already in the city and we're excited to introduce them again to this great city so we enjoyed working with on this project and with this team it was fantastic it was a great process

0:51:16I want to say that did a very fair and uh very well-run process we were looking we've been through this many times before and this is one of the best we've seen um from your perspective I wanted to say that uh the whole time we we enjoyed working with your staff and how the process was

0:51:38laid out during you know interim sessions things like that and we really listened to what your staff had to say and you know the two things we took out of it were customer service and practical sustainability those were the two major things and we incorporate our

0:51:52enhancements in our program to Mac you know hit on those two things consistently and we really wanted to maximize the value of the stipulated Zone that was provided so we presented this in our interview in four experiences and what we're going to do is sort of sum these experiences up and

0:52:11Chris is going to talk about those experiences from you know the operations and City and staff experience as we walk you through some pretty pictures and so Chris you want to take it over from here and then we'll wrap it we're very glad to be here uh with you tonight because this is a very exciting

0:52:29project for us and we had an awful lot of fun uh working our way through the um through the design competition part of it I think that um you know one of the things that we really gathered and understood after listening to both the staff but also the community was that

0:52:46having a great customer experience was your number one goal and that that experience is perceived in the way that people approach the site the way that they access the facilities and the way that they engage each other on the site so I'm going to start out a presentation

0:53:01which I hope will be pretty brief I'm just going to just give you out the highlights of it um and you're welcome to ask me questions uh later about all of it but uh it it's sort of going to start out by telling you the story of it from the perspective of the customers and that

0:53:15first part is coming up Schmidt Lane and the first thing that people will experience as they come up schmate Lane is a whole new sort of entrance to this area there's going to be a gate across the road that will be able to be shut at night and it's going to be sort of an

0:53:28attractive metal gate covered with boards with the El Cerrito recycling center logo on the gate and possibly on a monument sign next to it and as you continue into the site you reach this entrance to the main customer service area in this view as you turn in from

0:53:45Schmidt Lane and sort of had pretty much due north the thing that really captures your attention is this water tank at the center of the circle for us it became a mark on the landscape it was the way sort of anchoring the the center of this of this circular kind of form that we

0:54:01had it also reinforces the message about the things that we're doing with water on the site and the sort of the connections to other environmental sort of Consciousness that we have the circular form that you sort of will see in a minimum as we move up really helps with the flow of traffic and

0:54:18people it's clear it's practical it's functional it's easy to move around to park to find out where you need to go and we kept coming back how can we make this as easy as possible for people to find Zone ones two and three are arranged around the circle and function

0:54:35and work well with each other they are on the right hand side zones one and two in here and zone three Zone one is for paper and Plastics zone two are sort of sort of batteries and other hazardous materials zone three are sort of the large appliances zone five is the ReUse area that is also

0:54:58sort of arranged around the circle and sort of tightly connected to the center area zones four and six are over here zones four is that the sand and the Earth and compost and zone six is the Goodwill and other sort of special function areas to the right but they're

0:55:13also even though they're off a little bit to the right they're still well connected we feel and are going to be working on how to make sure that they all feel like everybody is uh sort of connected and then the customer service building is located right here it's in a

0:55:27very central location that has really good views and all the customer service areas um this is a place where we feel that the community is going to engage with each other on this site it's going to be a community center of sorts in The Visitor Center which is at the very at

0:55:43the end of this building it's going to be sort of in a really Central sort of location just as you come in and highly visible it's an attractive building uh that on both sides it's going to frame this entry there's space at both the exterior Plaza and inside this building

0:56:00in a lobby area for interpretive materials and customer service on the left hand side over in the ReUse area is is sort of we listened a lot to how the community was talking about this space and for us it became unconceived of it as a sort of a bookstore Cafe it's a place for

0:56:19materials to come and be exchanged but also for people to sort of meet each other to stay a little while feel like a community space and it was the one thing that keep keep kept getting mentioned again and again in these Community meetings about how much people were

0:56:32attached to this particular function and it's fairly large and has a lot of capacity and is expandable into some of these other zones if in the future you feel like you need to to do that we also all wanted to leave a mark and have a positive experience with people

0:56:49as they came here our primary goal was the same as yours this focus on the customer's experience and so that people would really sort of find that it was really easy to use and it sort of shows an illustration of people you know having parked their cars there's a walk

0:57:02continuous walkway that goes all the way around the circle so wherever you park you can find where you need to go you can park near to it but you can also walk as well the signage is going to be really clear so that's going to be one easy for people to find out where

0:57:15they're going and also will help reduce the amount of mix mixing and materials from one place to another we want it to be really attractive to light and cheerful and very welcoming it's made out of warm material some of them are recycled from the existing buildings

0:57:29some are new it's wood it's concrete has these sort of nice canopy roofs that go around all in this kind of circular form showcasing the recycled materials it's also safe in as much as it separates the customers on this side from the operations on the other side so

0:57:47that the forklifts and the other things and now our people are crossing paths in that parking area getting back and forth we're going to eliminate that all together and keep those backside operations out from under people's area and we feel that people are really going

0:58:00to like coming here and so while the customer experience is the highest priority how your staff uses the facility and interacts with the public is going to be equally important to ensure a satisfactory customer experience and so I will sort of sort of talk a little bit about kind of where

0:58:16everything else is laid out on the site we were talking mainly about sort of the customer side which is this Center portion right here as well as over here and people have materials that will kind of flow through this and in fact the diagram over here shows the flow so that

0:58:32the green line is how people drive in they can park in this circular parking lot they put their materials with the blue arrows into the bins that are around here and the areas there and they can work you know in the in the exchange area uh and then the staff accesses

0:58:47these all from the back side and they can come in with a forklift and grab these bins and then drive them over to the other areas where they need to be need to go this is the large sort of processing building where the Baler is going to be the Baler storage is in here

0:59:02there are a number of Roll-Off Containers where the materials then go uh from either around here or from Bales into these Roll-Off Containers and then they easily sort of have trucks that will back up to them here and then pull those things straight out there's no

0:59:16Crossing of paths between sort of the heavy sort of truck traffic and the pedestrian traffic until you get out here onto Schmidt Lane and so there is going to be another gate or sort of closure at this point here to just make sure the customers stay where they're

0:59:30supposed to stay and the heavy traffic can be where it is this area here is where the good World trucks go we have them sort of in these diagonal slots so that the back side is going to be the customer side where people can come and hang out and sort of exchange and donate the materials and

0:59:46then the trailers will be parked in these zones and then there'll be a gate across the front here to kind of keep it kind of a little less obtrusive than maybe it is now but when they need to take something out they roll those Gates back they back a truck up to a grab it

0:59:59and out it goes so we tried to think about the flow constantly in the industrial flow of this Pro of this site and sort of not only sort of thinking about what was written in the program but also talking to staff and asking them how how are you really going to operate this what kind of clearances do

1:00:16you need how's it really going to work back over here is where we have our hazardous material storage area there's going to be a space for oil and there's going to be a place for tools in the back um let's go back this slide you can also see further on back in this sort of area

1:00:33here is the rest of some of the operations this is a ramp up to six foot high platform which is the new tipping wall right now the Tipping wall is over in this area we're going to move that operation over here this is where the street sweeping trucks and other vehicles can drive up and actually just

1:00:48load dump right directly into a container from above so that's going to be over in this area here there are a lot of extra storage for Roll-Off Containers over here this is the truck wash area that's where your recycling trucks and other vehicles can get washed

1:01:04we have a special sort of facility for this where we're going to reclaim the water it's kind of like an automatic car wash where they recycle the water we again you know how we use the water here is really important there's going to be parking for the for the recycling

1:01:17Vehicles here and more parking in the back and staff parking along here and then you did mention you know the community garden we were left with some space that we didn't have to use on this Upper Terrace up here so this is the area that we were conceived of having

1:01:31for the um you know could be used for a community garden we would help get you started on that um and the special event days there's a whole different sequence of operations this screen shows that we would let the customers Drive in here and then through the circle coming out this way again

1:01:50trying not to have the crossing of traffic so that people stay on one side of the road and come in and out and then these zones here where people could drop off so special events could be any number of things but one of them might be oil drop off so they could drop it

1:02:03off directly into the oil or the hazardous material areas here you could have other events it's the idea was that people stay in their cars they drive by the staff comes and unloads their cars for them and then they move on and so we sort of devised use this form and the

1:02:19staff area in the back to try to have a nice smooth flow for these Special Operations which seem to be something that might be done more and more um the office building is something that we put a lot of attention to it's the only enclosed building on the site our

1:02:34concept as Jim mentioned is Zetta Community uh is going to do these they do these really amazing prefabricated buildings these are not your ordinary trailers these things are really nice and they specialize in high performance we are going for a zero net energy use

1:02:50on the site and part of it starts with having a building that is super efficient in terms of its energy use we have two modules here that are 14 feet wide and 65 feet long perfect size for transporting on the road and then a third module in the middle that's that

1:03:07sits up above and brings in natural light from above so this is all about having windows on the south that are shaded windows on the North that let in North light but also allow the view out into the operations area so from inside people staff can keep a really close eye

1:03:22on what's going on out there and then light coming in from the North and the South on this large clear story this way we figure probably not gonna have to turn the lights on all day long and that would be a goal that makes sense to us it also sort of has the doors at both

1:03:38ends of the building so this is an organizing principle of the building you enter at one end and the and the staff comes in at the other end where the mud room and the and the other functions are there's we also are collecting the water from the roof here and to using it for the um

1:03:52that goes into the tank in the center of the uh of the of the traffic circle and uh solo collectors on the roof here um as well as on the circular form are going to give us our 10kw of photovoltaics and um this shows some of the eye ways of collecting water on these roofs and

1:04:10bringing them there and the solar panels that are going to be on the roofs and some of our other sort of landscape concepts our landscape is going to be both beautiful but also very drought tolerant the water that we gather and store in this tank which is about a 15

1:04:24000 gallon tank so it's quite a bit that water is going to be used for flushing the toilets in this building and for watering using for irrigation on the landscape out here and we figure we can serve and also sort of may possibly make up water for the um for the truck wash

1:04:40and possibly could be used up here for watering and irrigating the landscape we figure we have enough water in this to sort of get us through a dry season but we also might possibly sort of look at tapping into other water sources that are natural flow if the regulatory

1:04:55agency allows us so we are going one Net Zero Energy to Beyond lead gold possibly to lead Platinum a very high lead Platinum that's what our scorecard shows us right now and then um you know in the details of our proposal talk a lot about how we're going to recycle every little bit of

1:05:14this site that we possibly can we're either going to recycle reuse it as into the building so the siding on The Zeta building the siding on the gates and the fences around there are going to be made out of the structural Lumber up the roof structure the roofing itself is going to

1:05:30be used on the main roof and every other the poles are going to be used over here in the uh in this area it's gonna we're gonna take every bit of this building we possibly can and reuse it and what we can't reuse we're going to recycle into something else and we expect to be very

1:05:44very little of this building is actually ever going to need to go to landfill so that's hopefully a brief overview and I'll turn it back over to Jim to finish up well yeah literally just a couple of slides um just to give you uh well actually Chris did you want to

1:06:03touch briefly on this um this is our interpretive program um which is to one you know our signage guy sort of we first came up with an idea of branding the the recycling center because we really want to raise its sort of visibility in the community and make it something that is really

1:06:24kind of people just get it right away and so we sort of came up with this idea of the interlinked EC uh that's a little rougher on the edges because this place is a little rougher on the edges uh with a you know sort of a leaf coming out of it to sort of show that it's you know

1:06:38sort of a ecological thing and we've used that in various ways including sort of painting it on the paving uh in in the big roundabout you might have seen that um you can see right here that that logo is kind of painted on the asphalt out here and that's so that even when

1:06:54you're on Google Earth you'll be able to find this place and um but the other parts of the signage are this is the sort of the the way finding sign engine so having a system where it's really clear as you come in kind of like you would be at an airport where you're sort of trying to find your

1:07:07your airline and which terminal are they in you know what and where do these materials go we really want to make this a smooth and efficient operation but also having interpretive signage both in terms of fixed Signs and Banners around the site that sort of celebrate kind of

1:07:21what it is that we're doing and what happens to it I'm sorry um and then uh sort of moving on to uh last but certainly not least the city experience um and what you're going to experience as we started to construct this and being a good partner for your city you know getting contracts squared away

1:07:48early and this was providing a temporary space for allowing the staff to operate while we continue to work in the other areas of the place so this was getting into that experience we also wanted to we showed a little bit of detail and this was actually the fun parts of us really brainstorming about

1:08:09this project and you know putting it together for a full fruition of The Proposal but what this the the emphasis of this is to show how we systemize design to create value for this project and everything whether it's existing materials and the wood vents that are

1:08:24shown here or other elements such as the Zeta we've tried to systemize things so that they would lower the cost and ultimately maximize value and also it is outlined in The Proposal but we are planning to deliver this project earlier than was stipulated in the RFQ

1:08:43so um I think that was uh that was The Proposal in general and hopefully we've conveyed our excitement and what it the excitement that we had in putting this proposal together for you we're very excited being here tonight and hopefully we'll uh we'll take any questions that

1:09:01you may have any questions from the council to a comment I think that's later okay questions um actually a couple questions about the so I guess I interpreted the the E embedded with the c in the middle and the center of the this facility as um landscaped or is it painting I guess

1:09:27you mentioned painting I wasn't sure if it was like permeable landscape surface or or in the parking area it's just painted on the surface okay we're not we're not removing a whole lot of the pavement on this okay okay disruption you know sort of hardly from you know an environmental point of view

1:09:47and also yeah point of view it actually it was both cost and that the site wasn't very good for permeability so okay okay thanks that's helpful um and then uh uh what else I think that was my main question at this point thank you you're storing this water of the 15 000 gallons

1:10:08in the center of the circle yet you're talking about reusing it in and and I appreciate the fact that you put the building with all the utilities closest to where the utilities are so you didn't have to extend any of the utilities or muck with too much of the utilities but

1:10:25how are you getting the water back to there I mean it seems like that you're not unfortunately not taking advantage of gravity to return the water to where it might get used for flushing toilets or makeup water or the like so there's obviously some sort of pumping action

1:10:41going back is that the idea yeah it's a fairly simple system of pump pumps and pipes that will be located near the um building near the office building possibly in an underground Vault and we'll pump it in and we'll use it for gravity when the water's high and when not we'll have to pressurize it and

1:10:58it's actually it's a great question we certainly want to use passive systems where we can there's also some additional filtering and equipment that needs to be located over by the building we actually want to present it in a way that would be an educational opportunity

1:11:12but because there was if we put it on the island it was expanding the size of the island and some other things so we're heading back that way anyway and it it would have been a and there is you know the other element is that this cistern is a design and awareness element that you know

1:11:32hopefully will you know promote the cause of you know Water Resource so um that was that was the whole intent behind it I really appreciate your attention to not doing much Landscaping not removing the existing asphalt um The Tipping area does look like it has extensive uh excavation at the toe

1:11:54of a already very steep slope um was that the stability of that slope or the or the the geotechnical aspects of that slope taken into consideration um with locating the Tipping floor there yeah in fact that's that's a pretty flat area in there it might not look like it

1:12:14um when you're standing around but there's it's a there's a it goes back in there so what we're doing is we're re-grading some of the other toes of the slope and and bringing material in there and we're taking out the old tipping wall and we are going to be Excavating

1:12:27in that area as well and those spoils will be brought over there and used to backfill behind the new wall at the Tipping wall so we we you know we haven't done all the detailed cut fill calculations but we're expecting to balance cut and fill on the side we don't want to take anything out of the

1:12:41site and there isn't a lot of rubble at the base of that Hillside but we'll we'll be pushing it around a little bit to achieve the the levels we had to raise it up six feet so it's not actually we're not cutting into it we're actually back filling into that kind of

1:12:55Gully and it's a it's actually a lot flatter than you might think because of all the overgrowth you can't see it but it goes back in there it certainly isn't the way the Topo lines are shown so that's why that's the basis of my question it paid no attention to the survey

1:13:11okay um sure okay you had an engine that you may need to rely on some auxiliary water supply I was just wondering based on the calculations of the volume of the cistern whether you anticipate that collecting water only half the year when we usually get rains and saving it all

1:13:31through the summer when we need to use it the most is going to be viable that's why we got a really big tank because we got plenty of water in the winter um I mean we're only probably going to need to collect it from the office building roof to fill that tank up

1:13:48um we will possibly have other ways of gathering water from other roofs in a dry year we might want to do that um and you know we don't expect that we will be able to get through all the summer long we will probably drain the tank and then we'll need to use City

1:14:03water but to the extent that we can there is a running if there is a running stream there's a pipe coming out of the hillside at one part of the site and um you know we have an idea that we might be able to tap into that if the you know fishing game you know other

1:14:16people don't sort of mind we might be able to use that as a pop-up Supply during the non-uh uh winter months because it runs all year long underground in a pipe so taking a stream and you know we're not well we are we are tying to city water right now and just to fall in with that Mr lyman's

1:14:35comment about the geotechnical challenges at the site as you know it is steep a former Quarry and um it has not only the potential instability but also some unique geologic features there the thrust faults that have been documented in The Franciscan Rock and so

1:14:54it might be um I'm sure that when you do your SQL evaluation that you'll be looking at the potential during your grading even if it's minor in the cut and fill to be aware of the design as it relates to those features for maximum stability and preservations of anything that's of

1:15:11interest to the scientific community it was a big part of our design process I mean we had all that we had a lot of information about the Geotech as we were designing and we located the buildings into to stay away from the Vault the foundation systems are designed to sort

1:15:28of deal with you know the subsurface conditions and the um you know the potential of the you know the rockfall coming down has also been taken into consideration by keeping things away from those edges have a um sort of a question about the flow of the operation from the point of

1:15:48view of the user so I assume that you'll be having users as now coming in by car bike on foot in a wheelchair on occasion um and um these will all merge and then the question becomes especially uh considering the car that are you expecting someone when they come into

1:16:11this circle that is the drop-off facility this drop-off facility that a patron would park the car in one place and then from there uh walk all of the material to all the different bins that they are putting materials into or are you expecting something else to happen will there be

1:16:32room for The Pedestrian element that comes in Myriad of ways besides a car yeah everybody's going to kind of figure out how to do it themselves I mean if they have mainly one thing they would be able to Park right next to that you know that zone and then get rid of most of it and

1:16:50then walk the rest around if they have two large loads I don't see any reason they couldn't back out and go park in another spot closer to where they want to go possibly even allowing them to back in I mean we need to there's some Logistics we need to work out in order

1:17:03to part of what I'm asking about is is there a sufficient pedestrian movements spaces sidewalk in essence there's a five there's a five foot wide sidewalk between where the front of the cars will be because we'll have wheel stops it's all going to be a zero clearance

1:17:19um in there so because we're going for sort of universal access principles and not having curbs and ramps of just having you know parking and Paving all in one zone and one level so there'll be a five foot wide aisle that runs all the way around between the parking and the

1:17:36and the drop-off bins okay and that would include the walkways coming into the center and the one of the drawings that we saw earlier it looked sort of like there were curves but no curb ramps well um yeah we were drawing things in computers and figuring them out at different times so the

1:17:55drawings don't always exactly represent what we might do there shouldn't be a curb there might be curbs in some places but for the most part we're trying not to have any cars in any place there's a pedestrian crosswalk there would be a curb ramp yeah absolutely and I think that it kind

1:18:15of answers my question about um that and and there's a five foot sidewalk all the way around or The Pedestrian element to move around in right okay so um basically yeah free-flowing all the way around here and a walk here a question yep in following following out on Janet's question um

1:18:36it may be for more for staff about what is the average parking demand for the site and if you know on a typical weekend you know are all 20 spaces used or is it just a few or just if there's what's that average I guess parking demand it gave us some numbers but um so

1:18:59Mario and Garth uh we did provide numbers to everyone but we realized that the parking strategy is going to vary so we think it's about 300 a day and we're kind of estimating that people stay for about 30 minutes 20 minutes actually and we're actually thinking of doing a green curb uh and a

1:19:1720-minute parking requirement as you know some people come up and like to linger for longer so we're going to encourage those folks to park out on Schmidt and maybe save some long-term spaces but overall have a have a bigger turnover on the inside was it okay thank you

1:19:34oh I have one additional question is there going to be a sidewalk in from um Schmidt and Naval Air oh this is the 69 million dollar question right so you're talking about heading down all the way off the wall here um I can't see what you're oh can you not see that I can see it now so yeah

1:19:55yeah all the way down to Naval Air there you go and our scope of work right now ends right here we do have in the scope to take it all the way to this point but we don't have the sidewalk all the way down to the corner um and that would be something that we would need to

1:20:14work on because there's other elements there you know whether you know that was starting to get beyond the scope of the the project here and whether there was other planning considerations that were involved there so to the extent that that it is within your planning consideration will there

1:20:31be a sidewalk with access to the roadway so that a person who may have to because as we haven't reached your site yet go on the street as a pedestrian then be able to go up onto the sidewalk when they get to the property so right now there is a sidewalk on the other side of

1:20:52the street right I think so yeah and and so the intent is that we would link that with a crosswalk either here or up here right now with a curb ramp so that yes it would be Universal accessibility including at Naval Air second well again the existing sidewalk is

1:21:16beyond the scope of this project I understand I'm just wondering if we've created a situation that's successful so we should look and I was just asking the Public Works director Jerry Bradshaw so we'd have to look this project only definitely contemplated this project

1:21:28boundaries and did not look at trying to complete the sidewalk all the way down to Naval Air so right now the sidewalk access would be as it is coming up the south side but um we could talk and look and see if there's some way that we could get the funding to do sidewalks on both sides of

1:21:46the street and look at what that would take I'm picturing the site and there's side of the street oh so yes so we'll look into that again this uh their contract that we're discussing tonight doesn't take it down that far but we did repeatedly in the in the scope and I think that panko Nolan

1:22:03Tam has responded to it emphasize that people could be coming you know by bike wheelchair foot or scooter and you know from a bicycle standpoint at a bike both long-term lockers for staff as well as short-term and we could look at those connectivity issues but I

1:22:22think within the site um I think that the pancail Nolan Tams both proposal and sensibilities will be we'll be looking at that everywhere but in terms of connectivity that'd be something more for uh to work with public works on okay thank you okay um so we've I think completed the

1:22:39question aspect of this so um I think at this point we're ready for public comment I have no speakers there are no speaker slips okay so why don't we move straight into Council comments thank you sure um yeah I can do that I first I want to thank staff for uh for making all the

1:23:01proposals available for us to review um I really appreciate the ability to to look at all the proposals and and compare them um I I want to thank all the proposers that that participated and I reviewed all the the proposals and and they all had strengths you could see uh each team had

1:23:23a strength whether it was in the construction management side the scheduling side the the design side there were some structures that were actually very uh very interesting um but I I will say that in reviewing all of the proposals uh this proposal had control of all the elements they were

1:23:44balanced they had uh pieces of they had good design they had the staging figured out they had good circulation and their focus on the ReUse uh and the what we'll call Green terms the energy Net Zero Energy the rain water reuse those are all things that that weren't necessarily

1:24:05obvious in in some of the other plans so I do want to acknowledge the other proposers but do acknowledge that this is this is one that uh I can support the selection of the of this uh Team uh for for many reasons so I want to thank staff for that um the other thing is I and the The

1:24:28Proposal said this and and it's very clear from staff's report as well as the you know the the look at the different uh responses this really was a well thought out process so I really want to thank everybody for uh for the process the it it it's very clear we have a process that got us achieved what

1:24:49we're looking for actually I think the public comment am I correct yes mayor okay why don't we move back and take that comment right now before we move any further Robin Robin Mitchell so my name is Robin Mitchell I'm an El Cerrito resident and I participated in

1:25:09some of the workshops about the recycling center the public workshops and um I think this proposal is very exciting and I um I think they allowed to address a lot of the issues that we brought up during those meetings and um I think that it looks like this is the

1:25:25fact that it's Net Zero and um you know that they really address the sustainability issues I think is very important the water recycling the the water used collection plan is very good and um as a member of the of the you know the resident Community I think this is a

1:25:46very exciting proposal and I hope you support it I do have one more comment um can you Orient the logo so that when I'm looking at it it you know because North is up when I'm looking at it from Google Earth and I just want to make sure the local is legible thanks

1:26:10Ann yes um thank you to staff and for all the proposers and particularly the ones that uh who have been recommended for all this work and having grown up in El Cerritos since I was five El Cerrito recycling center has played a huge role in my life and setting the norm of behavior and

1:26:34um you know I can say all kinds of great things but I think that kind of rigor of lifestyle has influenced a lot of things that I've decided to do with my life and I'm um and I'm very excited to see this form of the center be such a you know really forward-thinking

1:26:52really kind of courageous bold statement that really sets itself apart as a unique special place um and I think that if there's anything that I could add any wish list item to is to help us think Beyond just the building what it's made out of which is phenomenal that it's a

1:27:14Net Zero Energy and the the materials are maximally recycling on site but also thinking about how we get there and I'm sure there's not a ton of people who are going to be hauling their materials by bicycle but because this is an opportunity to to capture our community's attention on learning more

1:27:33about the benefits of cycling and maybe you could actually do it because especially if you're in the flats maybe you can do it and maybe rewarding that person instead of making them park on the outside of the the circle Maybe uh doing a demonstration of removing a

1:27:50car parking space for actual bike parking um in the center as a part of of the parking spaces and um you know essentially eliminating a step of schlepping um one step further and really providing it front front row service um so I think that's you know my it's it's

1:28:11a minor thing hopefully that can be looked at but it would really send a strong message that we're willing to look at swapping out a car space for bicycle space and potentially the length of one that would accommodate schlepping stuff like the the Burley trailers and

1:28:28whatnot um so that's I think really my one wishlist thing I think it's a superb project um when sorry one cup one other thing is that if you know depending on where the the demonstration Gardens grow go or grow uh looking at creating access from the interior of the circle so that you can

1:28:49actually see what's going on um so that there's a visible connection and that people actually can appreciate what all is going on back there if that happens but I don't want to say that it has to or not but I just want to throw that in as a comment thank you so I'm really pleased to hear that the

1:29:09bid process and all of the teamwork worked out well the council had given Direction and it's always nice to see it come to such an excellent product and I want to say how excited I am I really like this design it's sensitive to what is uniquely El Cerrito it's an excellent

1:29:26in its concept as well as being really practical in its design quality and it both implements the Sustainable Building practices but also provides this great opportunity for public education which I think as councilmember Chang had just indicated many children and people

1:29:44growing up in El Cerrito are greatly influenced by these opportunities and we're just taking it up a few more notches in response to everything that is pressuring um our communities today in terms of global warming and climate change the one thing I wanted to mention As you move forward

1:30:02in the design regarding the Landscaping is that it should not just be drought tolerant but it should be deer resistant because I know I know I recognize a lot of faces and you have a great local connection but you will know that it's a major Wildlife Corridor up through the

1:30:20hills so no good yeah um first of all I think it's a good uh industrial design and it it and for many that have many areas that have been mentioned before it moves in the right direction for where we're headed I it was in the 70s when it was developed I think so now we're what in our 40

1:30:47whatever it is our 45th year so this has to uh last at least 45 more years and I think I I think we're in the right direction um hancow is the Builder and Nolan Tam as the designer are both highly reputable and people in their field and I think we've got a great team here

1:31:12um also I'd like to remind us that this is dedicated funding uh I know it's we try to do that as much as possible and this is one more major project that will have its own funding source and therefore is not a burden on on the operating budget uh the one thing I do like about it is

1:31:33the circulation plan being in on the Planning Commission when they were going over previous designs when we had the old Service delivery system uh one of the major stumbling blocks was circulation and so when I picked it picked up the design and saw that it was

1:31:54a round building it instantly hit me that this was this was uh the solution it's a great it's a great design I think it's it's really unique um it's functional circles are always functionals people like me can't get we might not be able to get out of the circle but we won't lose our Direction

1:32:13so uh all in all I think it's it's a good project the one thing I would like to recommend and um maybe this is going back into my Recreation days when we're taught almost from the start to have a plan B if you have a plan A and I've been involved in uh some design

1:32:33build projects just about all of them had a second choice that was approved by the governing board at the same time that the First Choice has been selected and selected to negotiate final terms and contracts with the city or with with the agency and on one occasion it was it the

1:32:59first choice didn't work out they were able to go immediately to the second choice without coming back to the uh in this case it would be to the council to waste a lot of time and personally um I'm looking for this project to get going and be completed as soon as

1:33:15possible and even a month's delay if if for some reason this team didn't work out I I don't anticipate that but uh if it in fact does happen that staff can immediately go to the second choice and finish up negotiations hopefully and get going without losing too much time

1:33:37so I would suggest that we do designate a second and it would be staff had given the recommendation that we would go by points and I'm trying to find that would be plant and uh cavagnaro cavagnaro which has I will point out some of the similarities in that the building is

1:34:02also centered out in front and the circulation is very similar in circulation so I think there are certainly some similarities well they did score second highest on enhancements which I think really sets people apart so I I don't know that we could go wrong with that

1:34:20uh again I'm not anticipating any problems but just in case it's just it's just a plan B and I would highly suggest we do that thank you um in as the last speaker on this topic um I am very excited about this project um and looking forward to its Speedy completion one of the things that I

1:34:42particularly liked about it was the fact that it seemed to um um stretch things and just take it a little bit further for example um we had required lead gold and it's going to be we think coming in as lead Platinum I I find that that's that's the direction that I would like to see us go

1:35:06um I like the fact that all the different elements of a recycling center seem to be blending in well with each other and I like the touch of adding the community garden as an additional element because I think that fits in really well I like the um the way the water tank is in the middle

1:35:32because it it represents a real symbol of a reuse and reduction in the use of treated water so they're just all of these elements that come together that I really appreciate and see being quite functional at the same time this being our first foray into design build I

1:35:58think it's looks like a great start and I'd also like to add that I'm very excited about the Universal Design that as part of the project and um the early completion date that's scheduled I think you know all of these things are good and um so and um the the last thing I want to mention

1:36:27is this is actually not a very big project but so to see this much excitement about it is is quite thrilling um you know because you'd think well it's a small project who cares except us of course um but I think that um this project has shown that it's an opportunity to really uh demonstrate uh

1:36:53The Firm the firms that are working on it to demonstrate just what they can do and it's very exciting to have a team like that working with us so I think that perhaps is the most uh exciting thing that I I see in it is that we're really on everybody's really on board to make this a real symbol of

1:37:16uh if I get this one right the four r's um regards looking at me so he'll he'll fix it if I this one recycle Reduce Reuse and rot so so anyway I would like to thank everyone who has worked on it um including our staff and I look forward to a fantastic finish in not so distant a Time

1:37:45so is there a motion oh Scott I just in response to councilmember Jones's comments um I just want to let your staff is comfortable with that concept and choice we don't think it'll be necessary but if you do consider it staff's fine are you ready for a motion can I explore that some more how would

1:38:05that motion how would that be conveyed what's what's the what's the best way for us to convey that through a paragraph in the right in the resolution [Applause] thank you it could well it could be a second therefore after the now therefore we we would need a couple we need to

1:38:38wear as Clause that identified that they were the second scored and therefore um yeah I guess let's see where would we put that um I think that um you could include a second now a after the now there are four paragraph but before the SEC before the be it further resolved an additional be it

1:39:04further resolved um that the city council authorizes the city manager in the event that is necessary to um enter into a contract with plant Aro um and to execute contract amendments as necessary but I think the problem is we don't really know the amounts so we can't duplicate the existing paragraph

1:39:29exactly do we do do okay yeah it's the same amount so same amount so basically for be it further resolved that the city council hereby authorizes the city manager in the event that it becomes necessary to enter in a contract with plant cabinaro in an amount not to

1:39:45exceed 2.8 million dollars and to execute contract amendments in an amount not to exceed one hundred and forty thousand dollars is there a whereas Clause that's needed I don't think we need to identify them as the second scorer um that would be that would be fine you

1:39:59you need to make it explicit about who determines the necessity of the second choice pick you can I I believe it would fall to the city manager to make the determination if the if the if the goal is to have to avoid coming back to the city council then it would be the city manager's

1:40:14determination which is um which is built into that paragraph I just I think it would be clear to say that in the event that he determines it's necessary um so basic so if I can so a whereas Clause to identify um Clan cabanero as the second choice and then um as an additional paragraph

1:40:33be it further resolved um that the city council hereby authorizes the city manager if he determines it to be necessary to enter in a contract with etc etc that sounds good to me okay is that a motion I'd like to move um where are we here hold on I'd like to move uh that the city

1:40:55council of the city of El Cerrito authorizing city manager to execute a contract with the design build energy pan cow projects and Nolan Tam architects in the amount not to exceed two million eight hundred thousand dollars to design and construct a new recycling center and

1:41:19authorizing contract amendments and the amount not to exceed 140 000 with inclusion of the paragraphs as proposed by the City attorney I'll second it okay ready to vote all in favor please say aye aye aye the opposition any abstention motion carries unanimously

1:41:46um it occurs to me that out in the audience may be some other members of the team is that true okay could you introduce yourself at the mic please hi my name is Todd costarson a Nolan Sam Architects I'll be the project architect thank you and that any others okay who's the guy you want to see

1:42:14with that we will move on to the next item on the agenda which is item um 7B which is has to do with the finances of the project and we have Mary Dodge presenting good evening Madam mayor members of the council I'm Mary Dodge your administrative Services director

1:42:37and I'm here tonight to ask you to approve a resolution authorizing three and a half million dollars in capital leases to be able to fund the new recycling center this project has been talked about for as long as I've been here and one thing has remained constant and that was that

1:42:55the financing was always supposed to be able to be supported by the Integrated Waste Management fees so when we went to do this financing that was definitely one of the main parameters we started off with a bond we were going to try to do bonds regular ones you

1:43:10normally do but we found that for a small project like this the cost of financing three and a half million dollars was was rather exorbitant so we tried other mechanisms put out a message Statewide and asked for suggestions what we got were 15-year Capital leases and

1:43:30one 20-year lease where they were trying to get us to do a 10-year balloon payment we didn't even recommend that because we were concerned that 10 years out who really knows where the market will be and the reason we're trying to make this longer is part of our policies are

1:43:47we try to match the financing with the length of the assets and in this case it just wasn't coming together it wasn't going to happen that way so we we analyzed the ones we had and we came up with this recommendation for Holmen and at 3.8 percent and 15 years we're still

1:44:05saving a million three over the initial recommended adopted cost in the 10-year plan we have analyzed some of the different aspects of the different years and still come up to the fact that this is a much better cost overall for the residents um excuse me the Fab reviewed this on

1:44:28October 28th and we went over a variety of 10-year plans and reviewed the different proposals and they did make a recommendation that this um The Proposal recommended is is sound and it provides a better cost than what was originally in the 10-year plan but because of a little timing issue they

1:44:51did want to have me add to the council here that they they in the wording they the recommendation said of the proposals reviewed but they did have a favorable review of this proposal and they did recommend us going forward with this uh we're at the point now where we have

1:45:08our have legal documents that we would review if the council told us to proceed and it is uh potential that we could have this funding closed by November 30th and with that if you have any questions let me go ahead to answer them questions yeah I've got a couple of questions I

1:45:25already know the answer to them but I'm going to ask them just so that the rest of the council benefits from the discussion that the Fab this is a 25-year ground lease for the purposes if we default that they can recover their their their investment correct the structure of the proposal

1:45:46says it's a 25-year ground lease but that when it's repaid in total in 15 years then it it ceases and and we did confirm that and make them put a little bit stronger wording in that I did find out about uh other proposals to make sure that this was something that is

1:46:05typical and I did find out that we have in our city hall one which I hadn't really found before we do have a 10-year lease farther in this one as well so this is traditional structure don't fulfill Our obligation that it would exceed the time of the loan my other question is it again it the Fab

1:46:31did hear this and and is still supporting this proposal um there is a piece of property that we are using as collateral um and I don't unless you refine this it I didn't see it in here and I just want to make sure that everybody knows that we are actually putting a a finished

1:46:51structure down as collateral um albeit a very low risk in in the in a manner to be able to not have to pay for capitalized interest which is one of the expensive parts of the bond issue we are instead able to provide collateral and since we just recently paid off Fire

1:47:08Station 72 we're able to offer this up as collateral for this building and it allows us to really cut costs on the structure as a whole no it's it's it's collateral well actually there is a potential for restructuring if on it after the building is complete and then having

1:47:28that it go over to the building right yeah new building I believe the the nuances that it's during construction once the the buildings at the site are are constructed they have value in any of themselves that act as collateral yes this um collateralization is in lieu of

1:47:47capitalized interest during that period they actually technically they they have the building and they're leasing it back to us correct correct it is a it's a lease lease background so this is very similar to a lease lease back uh program that many schools are using

1:48:09now and is approved by the state on the school level and and I believe it's been a three or four years but it's been approved to use in the in the public for public agencies so they're actually we're actually giving them the building they're leashing it back to us for a

1:48:31period of 15 years can we excuse me Greg do you mind no I'm done could we uh pay that lease off sooner and would the building become our property sooner at that time or we could pay it off sooner and the building would become our property sooner there is a component in these in the payment

1:48:51schedule where you have a purchase price option that has I'm not going to call it a they didn't call it a prepayment penalty it's basically invoking a purchase option right um we really felt that at 3.88 financing um that the the concept of paying it off early was not really a concern

1:49:13thank you thank you I think we are that ends our questions and now we're ready for public comment do we have any speakers no speaker slips here bigger slips okay uh with that we're ready for the um any discussion remains Spike against the wall not seeing any is

1:49:38there a motion I can make this motion okay having having sat through the the financial advisory boards uh consideration this item um I move a resolution of the city council of El Cerrito the city of El Cerrito approving a lease lease back financing and authorizing the approval

1:49:58execution and delivery of a site lease and a lease purchase agreement declaring its intent to reimburse project expenditures and authorizing certain additional actions I'll check second okay mode there's been a motion in two seconds I think I just noticed that the resolution title does

1:50:21not have Holmen in it dude do we need to I noticed that the agenda item does have Homan Capital but the resolution that I just read does not is it do we need to make a modification to the first and second okay if it's not in the title Holman is identified in the recitals for

1:50:46the resolution so I don't know the title actually needs to be great okay so there's a motion and a second um I forget who came first second okay you can be firsthand um okay we're ready to vote then on the motion all in favor please say aye aye any opposition or abstention

1:51:11motion carries unanimously with that we'll move to council assignments and liaison reports and I'll start out I seem to have done a lot of things since we last met um at WIC Tac which is the West Contra Costa Transportation advisory committee one of the items that we discussed was

1:51:31the I-80 integrated Corridor Mobility project and this is the project that would make an a number of improvements to move traffic along more um [Music] um without delays and but not building any additional Lanes so um what this project would do is use a number of techniques ranging from signal

1:52:01coordination to this would be on the local streets on um to um signals at the freeway on-ramp that would determine the number of vehicles that could actually enter the freeway from that point over time and that would be a flexible Arrangement so that it could be changed

1:52:28and um so there'd be a number of factors and um the um there's been a lot of discussion in the transportation committees about this and one of the issues that came up was that they were proposing that the local jurisdictions meaning the five cities of West County

1:52:51and the county itself would pay for the maintenance of What's called the local component and the measure that was approved by WIC Tech said that we approved the project only if they find some other source than us to pay for that maintenance and um so um that's the way it was left and the

1:53:18understanding is that without our agreement that will not happen so hopefully that funding will be found and we will not be paying for it the other issue that came up was that the studies that were presented at um actually at CCTA the contrast to Transportation Authority showed that the

1:53:44improvements on I-80 would be greater than the local improvements in fact there would be a negative to the local streets which of course is not at all what local entities would like to hear so that's a number that can be adjusted by through the computer software that

1:54:04that runs the system so we also included in that motion that the um Improvement the level of improvement had to be the same on the freeway and the local streets the local Street in this case is San Pablo Avenue by the way which is itself a state highway in our case so anyway

1:54:25those were the changes made and and so that um so it now remains to be seen whether or not they'll be able to find the money for the local maintenance but the consensus among the what tech members was that was what needed to happen if they wanted to do the project

1:54:44and it is considered a real showcase project it is The only integrated Corridor Mobility project on the table right now so it was an important project to them um the um at the um Wells County Mayors and supervisors meeting we talked about a number of things one of them was we had

1:55:11a presentation on Banning this the use of plastic bags um I think I've heard that presentation now several times at different places and it's a really interesting complicated discussion and um so I think that one of the things that um we probably want to do out of it is is

1:55:34give it to some time to mature I just heard a presentation done by somebody from the city of San Jose on the topic they're actually implementing it and it's been actually millions of dollars implementing it of course this is San Jose not El Cerrito I'm talking about but it was a very

1:55:55difficult thing required what was described as the largest eir they had ever done um and a part of that was because of the pushback from the uh the vendors that make the plastic bags um anyway it was a real interesting discussion um and um the which was actually held at

1:56:18another meeting but the uh that part of it but anyway so we'll see what happens I think um it will be interesting to see but the goal I think is to reduce and perhaps eliminate the use of plastic bags and paper bags at retail outlets and switch people to reusable bags

1:56:39I also attended a bag as your representative um I think we actually didn't have anything we had to vote on but we did discuss um the economy and sustainability was the top main topic of the meeting which was Hills coincidentally in San Jose and had a very low attendance

1:57:06I would speculate that it was because of the site and I'm not sure if they'll do that again hopefully not um because it takes a long time to get there um and I think those are the main those are the items I want to talk about you want to go next Greg sure I can do

1:57:27that the financial Advisory board has met two times in their two meetings they have they reviewed the quarterly report that was in our consent calendar tonight they discussed the financing of the recycling center which we discussed in item 7B they're reviewing our they're

1:57:47conducting their annual review of the financial policies and investment policy and we'll continue to take that item up in December uh crime prevention committee has also met and they are looking forward to and planning our National Night Out which will be the first Tuesday in August August 2nd 2011.

1:58:16yes thanks uh planning commit commission has not met uh last couple meetings but this Wednesday the 17th um the Safeway plan goes before for hopefully the final time I think people are anticipating this will probably be the final time before the design or before the Planning Commission

1:58:41and look forward that if that transpires and everything holds and people are happy uh hopefully that'll be the big hurdle towards getting the project going so that's uh this Wednesday for anybody that's interested in in uh seeing Safeway present before the Planning Commission and the mayor's

1:59:03conference I attended uh Mary Abelson wasn't able to attend uh Hercules was the host and city manager and I were in attendance and I gotta I gotta tell you it it was kind of an odd feeling meeting um because it was the day after the election and we had a good number of people that

1:59:25uh did not make it um in their election and some of the new people that that did uh it was just kind of an odd odd feeling and the kind of top it all off uh the reporter from the contecosta times who is the local political reporter was there to give her uh day after analysis

1:59:48which uh with the people in attendance that didn't make it it was just odd it was It was kind of an interesting meeting I I don't know that you missed anything by being there not being there I should say but um on a more serious note they are meeting in December uh where they

2:00:07normally do not meet uh there has to be some things taken care of before the first of the year so it's it's a fairly important meeting and everybody then moves up in the hosting of of this so I don't know where that puts us for our next meeting but it next December the next holiday meeting

2:00:31yeah the next holiday meeting that's right at any rate thank you very much that's it um so I just want to report out and to Echo what mayor Abelson said about the great success of the city hall Arts day that we had in October and to invite everyone to come and enjoy the employee

2:00:49art show the arts and culture commission will meet this Wednesday to approve icons for the San Pablo Avenue art project and I hope to provide a more detailed update of the project design the arts and culture commission input and the schedule at our next meeting

2:01:04I also wanted to let people know that the human relations commission needs to have more uh members and so since we have an application period open I would encourage residents interested in the human relations commission to apply by the deadline of November 30th

2:01:23and finally I have been serving as the alternate to the West Contra Costa Unified School District bond oversight committee and since my term will be ending shortly I would recommend to the council and to the city clerk that we open that up for recruitment because in

2:01:39the wake of the election and the failure of the passage of measure M for the school district the bond oversight committee recently approved getting an increase in the amount of indebtedness relative to the operating budget of the school district in order to close some

2:01:56of their budget gaps so it is the bond oversight committee that evaluates those financial commitments underneath the various Bond programs that have been passed over the years and it's very important for El Cerrito to be at the table and in addition I have been in

2:02:12coordination with the designated member Paul Gilbert Snyder and he indicated that there's been an effort in the bond oversight committee to restructure the membership to remove the representation from each of the five cities I think that's also a critically important

2:02:29dialogue that we participate in so I just want to remind folks of that and that we have a recruitment process will take a little bit of time thank you okay with that uh were adjourned until the next meeting on December the 6th at that meeting we will be doing our Council reorganization

2:02:53um and saying goodbye to council member Potter who we will all Miss and welcoming uh Rebecca benicini who will be joining the council thank you all for coming in