Concurrent City Council and Redevelopment Agency Meeting December 20, 2010

0:00:01and so we're going to convene the special city council meeting um oh no sorry we're doing already yes so we're gonna start bear with my first time convening the concurrent city council Redevelopment agency meeting and if you will start join me in the Pledge of Allegiance

0:00:24I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one a nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you thank you so um I just want to report out um that we at our last city council meeting

0:00:50on December 13th we appointed the following members to the various boards and commissions Paul Gilbert Snyder to the West County Unified School District bond oversight committee Thomas Miller appointed to the citizen Street oversight committee um which is a reappointment uh along

0:01:11with Elizabeth Oz cell cook also a reappointment to the citizens Street oversight committee and all of these actually are reappointments Glenn wood to the design review board Margaret Kavanaugh Lynch to the Planning Commission and then tonight we just appointed the

0:01:32following members to so we did [Applause] to the parks and rec commission Leslie Goldstein was reappointed Robin Mitchell was appointed as well to new member of the parks and rec commission welcome and we also appointed to the human Relations Committee reappointed

0:02:02Pat Durham and new members Erica Rincon Whitcomb and starting in June a delayed appointment but for Sarah Parker um and then the final commission that we completed as well is or partially is for the Civil Service Commission we appointed David Anderson and Sarah Parker

0:02:32so that concludes where we're at and we will continue to have um in January 18th that our next council meeting um interviews for the economic development board the Financial advisory Financial Advisory board and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority citizens

0:02:53advisory committee or our representative so that's it and then any other I guess announcements from the rest of the council at this time sure I'd like to make a a quick announcement and let people know about the cinder shoddy Legacy video that the city is working on

0:03:16uh in conjunction with kcrt uh there's a short video that we're we're putting on if you have any memories or stories that you would like to share with us regarding your knowledge of Cinder uh and and his his works and just wanted to remind everyone we we a few of us uh about 30 of us got

0:03:39together this last Saturday and the rain notwithstanding it installed the Sunder shoddy display on Moser uh and so you it's up until Monday the 27th it'll come down on Monday and so if you want to come help take it apart that'd be great 9 A.M on December 27th and going back to uh the video if you

0:04:05have if you would like to participate in that please contact Suzanne ierla at 510 -215 -4319 one eight I apologize one eight four three one eight on January 17th Monday is um our annual or our traditional Martin Luther King Jr parade and rally the parade starts at 9 30 at the DMV and we

0:04:40will end up at El Cerrito High School for a very exciting rally at 10 30. so if you can make that that's a great tradition of our city and um we'll look forward to to that great event so I think that concludes our announcements and at this point is there any oral Communications on items not on

0:05:01the agenda um yes we do have one speaker if there are any other speakers interested in oral Communications from the public if you could please fill out a speaker slip each person has three minutes to speak and the speaker slip we have tonight is Tom panis you might need a couple seconds

0:05:31good evening mayor Chang members of the council and City staff my name is Tom panas I live at [address removed] El Cerrito a little more than two years ago the voters of Contra Costa and Alameda County approved measure ww money for park lands and El Cerrito was allocated

0:05:47about one million dollars of that and about 22 months ago I stood in front of you and said we should buy some land and since then we haven't bought any land we've done some very nice projects I won't dispute that just wanted to point out for you in case you missed it

0:06:01the front page of the West County Times from last Wednesday and I'll give it to the acting city clerk to pass around East Bay land rush talking about how cities and park districts Etc are finding this is a great time to buy land I know we have lots of things to work on

0:06:17in this city but maybe we want to consider that just one other unrelated item I've been noticing the granite benches around town and they look terrific thank you here's your honor thank you um having no presentations um we can move on to the consent calendar can I is there any motions to adopt the

0:06:45consent calendar I move go ahead okay I'm of adoption of the consent calendars items 5A through 5D all those in favor aye no opposition no oh I guess I'm also I2 um that passes unanimously and so we're on to our public hearing tonight [Applause] so the next item on the agenda this

0:07:21evening involves two separate public hearings the first public hearing involves proposed Integrated Waste management management fees the second public hearing is East Bay sanitary collection rates and the city council will provide an opportunity to hear testimony from the public regarding

0:07:38each item if you wish to speak and have not submitted a speaker slip to the city clerk please do so remarks are limited to three minutes per person and after everyone has had an opportunity to speak at the public hearing I will seek a motion to close the public hearing

0:07:55and so we will begin with the hearing on the Integrated Waste Management fees and at this time if we could have Garth provide a presentation thank you very much honorable mayor council members my name is Garth Schultz I'm an environmental analyst here with the city of El Cerrito and I'm

0:08:13responsible among other things for your Solid Waste programs including garbage green waste and direct administration of the city's recycling program so I have two presentations um we'll do one each for each of the public hearings first is on the proposed integrated ways to management fees for

0:08:31the coming year beginning January 1st 2011.

0:08:35as a brief overview the Integrated Waste Management fee covers the recycling services that are provided by the city here starting with the curbside collection of recyclables and the gray bins from people's homes with the big blue trucks that the city staff operates as well as

0:08:52all of the operations of the city's recycling center including financing of the new propos or the new uh construction of the new center is adopted back in November it's collected via the garbage bills by East Bay sanitary and we've been planning on a number of things for the past few years and we've

0:09:16annually with the budget process submitted a 10-year financial plan the 10-year financial plan that was adopted with this current Year's budget included fee increases for this fiscal year and for the coming fiscal year of 10 apiece it was built into the estimates and the

0:09:36assumptions that went into that financial plan because of some good changes in terms of what we've been planning for in the future partially based on knowing what our new recycling center would look like we've been able to adjust some of those costs in projected years adjust for some

0:09:53revenues and projected years and we also got an excellent financing package on the project itself which means that we're proposing an increase in this current fiscal year of 8.5 percent going out we don't expect anything above our basic Cola which is around five or

0:10:08potentially less the five is kind of the upper threshold for us there's still some assumptions in terms of our projections that we're working out but it's a very conservative approach and we're we always come in in the black let's put it that way [Applause] these are the 2011 proposed iwm fees you

0:10:26also see the 2010 iwm fee there for reference for each of the various container sizes that are out there a note here and you'll see this when we get into the next presentation in Old previous years you've seen a couple additional container sizes of 40 and a 45 gallon container between the

0:10:43two there were less than a dozen subscribers for those and to simplify our modeling and our rate hearings and simply just to make things a little bit easier we did suggest that they move down into the different rates and these space sanitary has been working to make

0:10:57that possible for this coming year the rates this year again to summarize are are less than we had previously projected they include in our 15-year plan that was submitted along with your agenda bills all of the financing payments on the new recycling center per the financing

0:11:17package proposed are that it was adopted back in November so we've actually increased our 10-year plan to a 15-year plan so that we can demonstrate and show all of those projected or all of the actual um interest payments on the financing for the new project so we're pleased to be able to come in

0:11:36under what we had previously planned and if you have any questions I'm happy to take them after answering any questions we do request that you conduct a public hearing and adopt these rates thank you great and so now we'll do questions from the council clarifying questions on the

0:11:52the proposed fees and one question as I was thinking about the rates um and I was thinking about the cost of landfill and the different size containers and I was just wondering if you could speak a little bit to how the um the the factor of the the cost of the landfill is factored into the different

0:12:22size containers I'm most specific more specifically interested in the residential correct and I have that with the next presentation I can move yeah um the for the iwm fees there is no landfilling cost included the iwm fee covers all of the cost of recycling collection the the cost of managing the

0:12:42recyclable materials and then we in turn from those materials get a level of Revenue that helps support the overall operation so the iwm fee is only a component of that for landfill Disposal Green Waste processing that's all adopted through the the West County Solid Waste Management board and it is

0:13:02included on the rates and in the next presentation I can show you the overall impact of the rates for this year because what I was just wondering about is if the pricing strategy in because although I they may be separate rates they do in influent if if one is which I

0:13:19know you are interested in doing is reducing the landfill um it seems to me that the rate structure can play a role and does play a role in that it very certainly can although that it can also be a double-edged sword at the same time as in and this is a discussion as we get

0:13:35into East Bay sanitaries rates in particular for this year as we set up a rate structure that helps encourage folks to send less to the landfill it can be a challenge because you can end up in some unanticipated consequences um but it is something that's very much

0:13:51on our mind and we do take an overall look at the entire rate package not just the individual fees the the iwm fee that's set by the council the East Bay sanitary maximum collection rates that are set by the council and also the the integrated resource recovery facility

0:14:06which is the garden garbage and green waste rate set by the West County Integrated Waste Management board we we definitely look at all of those when considering rates we also consider the programs that there was rates are supporting as they make it easier for our residents and

0:14:22businesses to decrease the amount of waste they send to landfill does that help answer your question um possibly it's more it's it's I'm not I'm not really sure but I think I'll just wait until the other sure area and I just and I think I'm hearing you say and and I'm that's what I was looking for is

0:14:42that that you are looking at those factors at all times to make sure that you're not um by rates by whatever rates are Set uh encouraging people to put things in the landfill that is definitely correct we we are trying to do as much as we can to discourage that in fact within reason

0:15:01thank you thank you other questions yeah I just want to ask a couple of clarifying questions just so that that it's very clear the uh eight and a half percent Revenue increase is almost uh 8.95 actual rate increase to the to the ratepayer to the person who's paying

0:15:19correct to the residential rate payer because of an issue of migration to smaller can sizes which we'll discuss in a little more detail as we talk about East Bay sanitary's rates but over the last few years we've seen higher rate payers folks in those 64 gallon

0:15:35containers in the 35 gallon containers move down into smaller container sizes as they send last waste less waste to landfill as they recycle more and use the composting programs more they're able to move into those smaller can sizes so what we've done in projecting

0:15:50next year's rates is adjusted for a certain amount of migration which is why you will see if you're in the 20 35 or 64. it's closer to a nine percent but that supports an overall Revenue increase for energy Waste Management fees of 8.5 percent excellent and the

0:16:07Integrated Waste Management fee covers the recycling which is both the weekly pickup of the recycling as well as the operations at the recycling center and it also is covering the construction costs of the new recycling center that's exactly right and where will the

0:16:26recycling center be during the construction period at the head of the current site we're just moving into the finalization of the site plan for the new center and the plan is to adopt and to occupy a space at the very head of the current Center site on Schmidt Lane

0:16:44around where the Goodwill trailers are our plan our goal is to offer drop off for everything we can during that period and and the there is no increase in cost for that interim operations that's where this question was going um it's all been built into the assumptions in the plan

0:17:02thank you the increase the annual increase after this year you stated at five percent however we have a policy that says that we raise it only for the cost of living so I take it that the five percent is an estimated for planning purposes only and that we set the individual rate each

0:17:27year that's correct it's for planning purposes just to demonstrate the sustainability of the fund over the longer term yeah because uh the last couple years it hasn't approached five percent so I just want people to understand that we need to use some figure to plan we have a 15-year plan we

0:17:44have to cover some fixed costs but then we have that increase is only cost of living that's correct thank you thank you yes councilman thank you just just a quick question for you Garth when you're looking into the future where the new recycling center is built and we have a

0:18:02great program there has there been any thought about um additional funding that may be needed for any new programs or is the idea that as we're expanding programs at that site we're going to try to rely as much as possible on existing staff and and volunteer work

0:18:18the the latter is definitely the case the all of the assumptions built into the plan are relying on existing staff some volunteer work and assuming that some new programs we come in are actually going to be Revenue generators that said we still don't know exactly

0:18:33where we'll end up we may find that we have a whole bunch of new customer needs during that time I think the one thing we currently don't have a full dedication to in this plan as proposed is is a bolstering of customer service through phones and through counterwork

0:18:51that is a potential that we might see more of that but I still think our goal would be to keep it within the realm of what you see in the plan there but our current projections our current assumptions is that we're going to do with what we have now and just one other question uh you

0:19:06mentioned at the beginning that we're increasing we're proposing to increase the fee by a lesser rate than what we thought a year or two ago and you mentioned the recycling center cost being kind of the primary driver of that is there any are there any other things

0:19:19you've noticed I'd just like to hear when uh cost estimates come in below projections if is there anything else that happened that you would want to highlight for sort of future planning notes um I mean interestingly once we started to really see the the architecture for

0:19:34what the site is it really started to open up my mind in particular about what was going to be possible up there realizing that what we're going to have at the end of this process is an attractive safe secure accessible site that people are going to want to come to

0:19:48and that we can utilize other recyclers other types of processors to collect other materials and I think that that's where we started to and this was also some comment we heard from a number of the community meetings we held on the recycling center redesign topic there's

0:20:04some potential for additional revenue and I think that that was really the thing for me was wow we can we can bring in other partners they're going to want to be here this is a good access a good central location it's um it opened the realm of the of possibilities for me great thank you

0:20:20thank you any other questions from the council um saying none we will now open the public hearing and hear comments from the public if there there are any um would the clerk please call any names if there are any there are not any public speakers no speakers so being that there's no

0:20:42speakers can I have a motion to close the public hearing so moved second all those in favor aye aye aye opposed abstentions motion carries unanimously um so at this point is there are there any additional I guess comments at this point discussion comments yeah let's see this is for the first one

0:21:09setting the rates the iwm yeah let me uh just comment a little bit on this and it might flow over to the second discussion but as your representative on the West County Contra Costa County Integrated Waste Management or recycle more board I can tell you that we've spent

0:21:33about four months discussing the budget which these rates get into as well as the rates themselves and to answer um council member abelson's question uh very much so particularly on that board everybody looks at how the rates and the rate increases affect their particular City and

0:21:57constituents but also value-added that's clear that if we have a lot of rate increase or proposed rate increase that we're asking the vendors for that value added so that even though we're paying more we're getting more service second of all the the it's interesting that rates are coming

0:22:22up tonight and uh it's apparent to me and and it's been apparent to the board the West County Board that there has to be consideration for different ways of approaching rates as we move forward this came up a couple years ago with the new landfill and um it was apparent then that the volume uh

0:22:49going into the landfill will decrease and actually helps extend the life of the landfill so it's it's not bad that this happens but what it does do is starts thinking well how how are we going to charge rates and how what's a fair uh a fair rate so that the company makes

0:23:09their operating cost plus a profit and what's fair to the cities and and to the residents so uh we're going to have this discussion and I think it's probably coming up now but I want to let you know that it's apparent not just here but as the the report pointed out it is going

0:23:29to be an industry-ride issue and it is good that we're studying it now and I I'll save my other comments uh on that for when we uh when we take it up the other thing though I want to say is it's a substantial increase in rates when you take a look at the percentage increase

0:23:50uh when compared to what has been done historically in fact we went 13 years as the report points out without raising rates but we do have the extra collection that this may have and we do have the center and uh I think it's a one-time increase this year is it eight percent otherwise it

0:24:15goes back to the normal way we we raise rates so I think uh you know it isn't a bad time to to raise the rate because we got a very good interest rate on our uh financing of the center and uh we have to kick that rate up a little more and then uh we'll be back on track

0:24:36uh starting next year so thank you any other comments yeah I want to commend staff for um actually you know putting all full package together that does consider economic ways to reduce the increase we we certainly we're looking at something that was closer to a 10 increase in

0:24:55having something that's on the order of nine percent is certainly less um it is a large increase but I do believe that the services that we're getting the new recycling center rates New Recycling system we instituted not long ago less than two years ago then future recycling center are all services

0:25:15that are commendable and I think services that our residents want and this rate increase uh is fitting with with the services we're providing any other comments or a motion oh let me find the rezo I'll move it you want me to read the script and I'll just comment as well

0:25:41um just to Echo uh appreciation for staff and to to recommend Folks at home if you're watching to to when you download our reports um or our meeting packets there's a great lots of great um data here about what our community has been doing attachment five specifically

0:26:00um is just really impressive to see that we are on task towards meeting our goals of reducing waste from 2005 levels down to um almost 50 percent by 2020 I think it it's just a really handy way for our community to get that feedback of you know it's possible to make behavioral

0:26:20changes and when we're equipped to do so that we will do it and um the other thing I want to point out the great stat and at the back um of the staff report about how we um by by implementing the additional composting pickup each household can reduce the two percent decrease in greenhouse gases and

0:26:44essentially all these metrics about reducing carbon dioxide it just is a very cost effective way for us to be doing things and people feel good about it and so thanks to the city of El Cerrito residence for for doing their part I'll move to adopt a resolution fixing

0:27:01and setting rates for the Integrated Waste Management iwm fee as identified in the enacting Clause of the resolution effective January 1 2011.

0:27:13a second motion all those in favor please say aye any opposed abstentions motion carries unanimously so we can move on to our second public hearing on the East Bay sanitary collection rates and Garth I can invite you back to do part two thank you again just a quick note before I move into

0:27:40this piece of the presentation I did want to note we have an error in page three of the staff report at the very top there's a chart that shows garbage container size and the various rates those should say East Bay Sand or EBS 2011 rates not 2010 we apologize for

0:27:57that that's what happens when you recycle last year's agenda Bill and modified for this year so thanks for catching that okay so there's a number of things to talk about here um I wanted to start off I'll start off with an overview of what we're including in the

0:28:20proposed rates for East Bay sanitary collection for to the 2011 starting January 1st I I did want to note um councilmember Jones was spot on in a number of the issues that we're struggling to create some viable solutions for and this year is is the first step in that for us

0:28:39um as costs as the amount of waste going to landfill goes down there are some kind of unanticipated consequences of that that I think that a lot of us in the solid waste and recycling collection field were just very geared towards getting that stuff out of the landfill

0:28:55and now we've got some other things that we need to do um we do plan on tackling that in a much more headlong way in the coming year we have a initial discussion about it here tonight in an initial step towards solving a number of those issues for our collector East Bay sanitary

0:29:11so this year's rates include three basic components um one is the normal cost of living adjustments which is pegged to fuel labor and other consumer increases there's a methodology that's stipulated by the Second Amendment to the franchise agreement with East Bay sanitary that

0:29:26says how this will be calculated and it's the same adjustment that we've been calculating for the last five years so the rates include that component which for this year is 2.9 plus percent 2.94 of just normal cost of living adjustments there's also an additional set of

0:29:43adjustments included to deal with the issue of migration to smaller garbage containers that I described before and I'll have a chart and I'll discuss that in a little bit more detail but that's really the piece I think the council member Jones highlighted is that we have

0:29:57smaller kind of a shrinking base of of units to be able to distribute the fixed Capital costs of running these programs over you end up needing to make sure that you can keep the company whole and that's not necessarily what's been happening for the company the last

0:30:12couple of years finally and this is exciting we're also proposing a an across the board for residential customers that's the 20 35 and 64 gallon customers part of the rates were proposing include 1.65 adjustment to cover the costs necessary to implement weekly green

0:30:33waste collection so that's weekly collection of your green cart which you can put your yard waste your grass trimmings your leaves and as well starting back in July your food scraps all food scraps bones meat fish everything as well as soiled paper products such as your food wear paper

0:30:54plates and and the like foreign we were struggling a little bit with how to show this to you in a way that it makes it really shows the effects but this shows over the last five years and including projections for 2011 which are are quantities of containers as of December 1st of this year so it's

0:31:18our assumption for what we're going to look at going into January 1st all of the other dates are cart counts starting January 1st but you get a picture of how many 64 gallon cards which are at the top how many 35 gallon carts and how many 20 gallon containers were out there for

0:31:34trash collection and for the first few years 2005 to through about 2007 to 2008 it's a pretty static number and in terms of the effects of the that annual rate increase the one I mentioned that's calculated via formula for diesel for labor and all of that if your cart

0:31:54quantities stay the same over time that annual adjustment your cost of living adjustment gets you the revenue that's needed to keep the operation running however in more recent years for a number of reasons those quantities have been changing and most specifically

0:32:11customers in larger containers that people pay more to have have been migrating their accounts to smaller containers and it gets pretty significant as you look towards 2019 2010 and going into 2011 that bottom green bar is is growing by a pretty significant amount

0:32:31likewise the very top the yellow has been decreasing pretty consistently over the past three or four years what this means for East Bay sanitary is that they are receiving less Revenue than anticipated despite annual and increases for their cost of living and as I and a consultant brought on by

0:32:57the city have looked at this over and over again it's definitely been confirmed that this is affecting in an adverse ways-based sanitaries Revenue stream it is affecting their bottom line profit and they've been operating below their profit margin for the last several

0:33:10years and it's anticipated they will for this year and coming into the coming year the what we're proposing and this is where you get into I think it's an attachment B or C in your packet to the one where we detail an additional adjustment this year to account for this

0:33:26migration um and there's some numbers tied to it we only wanted to make sure it was something that was justified that was legitimate that was going to help get the company where it needed to be in terms of its Revenue needs but also was not too much of a significant impact on

0:33:39the rate pair that's an additional three I believe 3.5 or so percent uh increase to account for this migration issue the good news on the other hand is fight rate increases for the past year is the average rate payer across El Cerrito has been paying more or less the same as you

0:33:55know that's not any individual rate pair people are changing as they change their garbage can sizes people have been saving money which is good for them but it is affecting the company's ability to make sure it can keep running its operation so that's we've got three pieces again

0:34:10the the annual index the migration adjustment and the adjustment for weekly Greenways collection so I wanted to highlight specifically that Weekly green waste is an increased level of service and this year it's the major portion of the space sanitary rates that we're

0:34:24proposing and that means for residents here that you we perceive a number of comments over the past six months since we've implemented or five months since we've implemented the green waste food scrap collection program comments including it smells too much or there's there's bugs or ants and I

0:34:41really want it to go weekly so this doesn't happen we've also heard that for folks that even are participating is that they participate more if it was collected weekly and a significant number that just flat out won't participate until it goes weekly for a number of reasons weekly makes a

0:34:56lot of sense for our residents here in El Cerrito it's also the standard of service for Greenways collection throughout California prior to implementing our green waste collection this past July no other California City had done bi-weekly collection of food scraps and yard waste with the exception

0:35:13of Richmond that started the exact same time as us so you can see in the second bullet here the the rates overall for 95 percent of the residential customers that is the East Bay sanitary component of the total rate I'll show you the total rates in a moment are going up from about 240 to

0:35:28290 for 95 of customers over half to almost 75 percent of this or almost three quarters of this is going to cover that increased level of service of weekly Greenways collection and this has a real significant benefit in terms of council member Jones's questions and council member abelson's

0:35:47questions about how much is getting sent to landfill the the Organics the food scrap component of of our waste stream of what we each throw away every single day or put in one of our bins is a really huge part of the overall pie it's roughly a third of our total waste uh if

0:36:03you put it in the landfill it creates some pretty bad gases for greenhouse gas emissions having a large effect upon global warming if you put it in a compost pile not only do you make a valuable soil product out of it that people can put in their Homes and Gardens and our residents have started

0:36:18to do but you also have less greenhouse gas impact at a total of about 20 bucks a year to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions if everyone participates it'll be by two percent if if not everyone participates it mayor if you participate fully you can definitely take a look at

0:36:33that two percent for yourself um so those are the major considerations for these rates this year these are the 2011 proposed rates you can see again Buy rate size you'll notice those bottom two rows you have a first number which is is the the refuse per pickup collection for bulk refuse it's the same

0:36:54way it's been in the past the one in parentheses is the monthly rental for that same can size just to simplify the chart I've put them on the same line for you and you see them compared to the 2010 rates this gets to the overall rate impact of what we've been looking at for this year

0:37:11you see each of those same container sizes listed the 2011 East Bay sanitary rates the 2011 Integrated Waste Management fees that you just adopted as well as the 2011 integrated resource facility rates which cover the disposal of trash the composting of our green

0:37:30waste as well as other costs associated with our regional participation in the joint Powers Authority it gives you the total monthly rates for 2011 as proposed and the comparison to the 2010 rates right I think unless you have any I'm sure I'm assuming you do have some questions but

0:37:49after that we would request that you conduct a public hearing and adopt the rates as proposed absolutely this time of the clarifying questions from the council yes clarifying questions um I I'd like to we get billed I believe it's every four months there's three

0:38:06bills a year is that correct that's correct so I just want to make sure that um I understand basically that last slide somebody would be looking at their bill going up roughly 12 or more dollars um in you know it's a substantial increase it's going to be something

0:38:22they're going to notice um and I wanted to take the time to clarify to make sure I understand the breakdown um so that so that it's very clear what's what's going on if I look at the increase uh that's that's occurring you said there's a 1.65 flat across no matter what size

0:38:43um container I'm getting at home it's a dollar 65 which works out to 70 percent of the increase the 2.39 increase on the 20 gallon can um it that 70 of that increase is associated with the the new service that we're providing the green waste provider service and it's 57 percent for the 35 gallon

0:39:08tank the dollar 65 it represents 57 and for the large 64 gallon uh home user that's only a 40 increase because it's flat across so so the rate increases is is different this is going to be I think what uh remember Abelson was talking about the rate increase for the 20 gallon can

0:39:32appears to be very high it's 21 and a half percent almost but a large part of that is this new green waste service and so that's why I wanted to take a few minutes to make sure that people understand that that increase yes it's going to go up pretty substantially

0:39:4920 some percent but it's related to this new service that we're going to get that's exactly correct and there was a reason to to make it a flat approach partially is because if as we've discussed the migration issue making it a flat rate negates the impact of migration upon the ability of the

0:40:07company to cover the cost of implementing this new program that's exactly why we did it that way um I've got another question for you and and it's it's one having actually um you know previous career done a waste sort at a at a facility down in San San Leandro um what is left

0:40:30in our landfill waste stream at this point what has anyone done a recent analysis of the waste stream that's an excellent question and no it is one of the things I definitely see is next on our to-do list um we've we've had as you know last couple years a number of different

0:40:46changes to our programs that have been in some ways long and coming I think looking at what those next steps are is going to require that we're going to need to really assess what are the other components of the waste stream I can tell you from experience what a number

0:41:00of those things are things from your bathroom if you have any pets it's your pet waste if you have any kids it's your diapers and it's soiled Plastic Products and other things that have a sufficient level of contamination such as they can't be put in your gray recycling cart

0:41:16or your green waste container point of clarification the dollar 65 actually was a result of some operational changes and some equipment purchases that allow for some efficiencies and I did notice that there was a lease period so I wanted to find out is there opportunity to pay that off

0:41:36early or do we have to wait the seven years or is there going to potentially be a hopefully we have some money an opportunity for us to pay out the end of the buy out the end of that lease to get that last six months excellent question um the financing would be done by East

0:41:54Bay sanitary company itself so it would be their um their lease on the trucks and I we have Mark vagonia of East Bay sanitary here maybe he can clarify that for us um but I think the the The Seven Year financing period that they're proposing would only really go

0:42:13into effect at about the time of financing and it may be necessary for us to seek um or for them excuse me to seek a small extension of the franchise to cover those costs so that they're not born with that or that I think the other option would be to further increase that

0:42:31monthly rate to cover their costs on the final end of it um so it's a good question I don't fully know the answer to it Mark do you have any comment please come to the mic thank you we can certainly uh I have to imagine that any financing agreement would allow us the

0:42:49opportunity to pay it down early it's uh we don't have anything in place yet I've got a couple of estimates on rates and I'll be looking to you guys too to see if there's anything even more advantageous that we can uh take advantage of but if counsel is of of the

0:43:04mind that uh they want to get out of these leases even sooner then it's certainly up to you to to provide additional rate coverage to do it thank you other questions I just wanted to ask uh council member Lyman did I understand correctly you said that there's a twelve dollar

0:43:22increase in the bill not the monthly but because because there were billed four-month increments if the bill is going to right the per bill that's what you're going to notice is going to be something on the order and so all the numbers we've been talking about tonight have been monthly

0:43:40numbers right but because we all get these bills that are not monthly I mean it's probably in there but when you write the check you're writing the check for something that's four times the number that we're talking tonight I understand okay good appreciate that I

0:43:54just want to clarify we weren't talking about per month because the rates shown here are monthly and so I just wanted to clarify that we're not raising it twelve dollars a month no no thank you if I may add to the point that council member lemon brought up about the the operational

0:44:08efficiencies as a result of adding a new green waste collection truck the The Way East Bay sanitary is proposed doing that is replacing four outdated trucks with three newer higher capacity more efficient trucks so there will not be an increase in truck truck traffic in

0:44:26neighborhoods as a result of this change and there will be cleaner more efficient vehicles out there yeah I was gonna throw that have you plugged that and that it'll be probably less noise and more fuel efficient and and better engines so that even what they do emit

0:44:41is is all lower uh particulate matter lower uh pieces so I'm I'm glad you plugged that in thank you God just a couple of questions I don't know if you happen to know this it's a little bit of a detail that might not be in presentation um the participation in the green waste

0:45:03now do you happen to know what it is for residential and looking to looking forward is there any estimate for um what we think or what we'd like to get in terms of a percentage increase due to the weekly service that's a good question and it's one that I deserve I

0:45:17just need to put a little more thought into what we do know from the outset is that at the rollout of the new program we had enough of the the countertop food scrap pails for about 25 percent of single-family homes in El Cerrito and those are all but gone um so on that number I would assume we

0:45:36have at least 25 percent of folks participating out there although I know for certain that there are a number of folks that are participating and just don't like the pales they have their own method of doing it um from other counties specifically Alameda County that's had more of a

0:45:50history in food scrap collection I think that the upper limit that we can look at for the next few years is getting up to about 50 percent and beyond that you run into a longer term education campaign to make sure that people are aware of the benefits and they become comfortable

0:46:07with it if you think about recycling we've got a really great recycling participation rate but we're a good what is it I guess 20 years from the the initial kind of push to make recycling in everyday word and everyday practice food scraps is you know to get towards

0:46:26your your really high levels I'm talking about 80 90 level participation is going to probably take that long in the long run but I think that in the next three four five years we'll get up to about that 50 range and that's that's the significant amount of stuff out of the

0:46:39landfill I mean the the total tonnage that represents is really significant for us um and just thinking about that 12 increase in folks bills that's going to be coming up the next year if this is approved will there be what's the sort of communication on these rates and what

0:46:56will sort of their first bill or two contain information about what what we've talked about tonight definitely the East Bay sanitary does include information about the new rates effective January 1 and their first bill which goes out January 1. we also intend as the city in our promotions in a

0:47:13newsletter that we put out about three times a year to include the breakdown of the new rates and specifically highlighting the new services so that folks are aware that they can put their green waste container out weekly and starting to discuss some of the new

0:47:25options for the recycling center so that folks are aware of the new services and the cost of those services okay and the last uh sort of question I had or comment for you is having to do with the index that I guess we have been using in the past is the idea then that

0:47:39going forward will look at the index and oh and uh we'll be sort of build in this migration issue into future conversations and kind of you know keep quantity keep quantitative statistics on how we're doing with that I think that's one potential approach but our intent is

0:47:55to really throw open the books in 2011 with the space sanitary and really review and reevaluate our rate model right um so that we come to a much better solution towards some of these what are more potentially longer term problems and look at some other ways of

0:48:11potentially keeping costs at a minimum cost control um there may be some operational efficiencies that we can look at so we're as of the result of the discussions that got us to this point tonight we definitely said on both sides we need to review this in more detail

0:48:26next year in preparation for something I think more definitive for the coming next year's rate review and model okay thank you councilman thank you and certainly the question that I had initially has been answered I think very well thank you thank you I just had one

0:48:49quick question about looking into the future at different sizes of green waste bins and if that's um where is thinking on that and if that's um yeah just do you have a size in mind exactly but just curious if there's a there's and since you're opening up the that that is

0:49:10I'll certainly register the comment it's something we haven't discussed I will say this that when you start to get into different sizes of things like a green waste container you you do increase costs for a couple of reasons you need a larger inventory of containers to be

0:49:24able to offer because these aren't things you can just go out and Order and procure they're they're in significant orders to be able to get good pricing for them and then there's a cost for East Bay sanitary to store maintain and get those containers out in the field

0:49:38having and I'll speak from from my experience with our recycling program having a kind of a one size fits all with exceptions container it's a lot more efficient to operate on a single container size for those types of standard services but it's something we can enter in and

0:49:55try to to think about a little bit more thank you thank you with that if there are any that have submitted for public comment there are no speaker slips your honor okay I moved to close the public hearing second all those in favor hi um abstentions uh opposition none so that passes you

0:50:23unanimously and so if we can move on to I guess any final comments or otherwise emotion yeah uh again going back to maybe comments before but on a little more specific level first of all the weekly green pickup it was interesting I I think we made a good effort in trying to go bi-weekly but

0:50:50um being as the whole state is is at weekly and I too had a lot of comments about the the waste being there for two weeks before it's picked up uh and even the people of City of Richmond commented on that in the last board meeting at at recycle more so it sounds like to me that we made a

0:51:17good attempt to keep the costs down by going bi-weekly but really we're just moving up to the standard service of week of weekly service so um I think it was a good try though and uh it's it's What the residents want and it's time to adjust so I see no problem with that

0:51:38uh it's interesting that the we put 1.65 across the board on let's get containers because in it's just my personal feeling that where this rate thing is going to end up in the future and I don't know how long it's going to take we're going to take a year to look at it

0:51:58uh I think we're going to be moving towards a service rate type of charge rather than a volume or a consumption rate and I know there's a lot of complexities to that because they're um the whole rate system from the time they pick up to the time they put it in the

0:52:17ground is about volume The Tipping charges the the amount of garbage as as has been discussed tonight the uh the the profitability and operational costs of the company is based on volume and I can see where it I think it's going to end up this it's going to be some somewhere based on a

0:52:40service rate a rate for service and I don't know how we get there I don't know what it's going to look like I just that's a gut feeling and what I think is going to benefit us is that we're working with a company that has been with with El Cerrito for a long time

0:52:58they're local um they know El Cerrito and we can work with them to formulate a service that fits El Cerrito rather than some corporate headquarters back East somewhere and so I think there's an advantage that we are in a good relationship with our vendor East Bay

0:53:19sanitary and that their profits and their operating costs go directly back in locally into the local service and I hope that relationship continues because it will be I think beneficial to us as we're taking this year to look at these service charges and see which way we

0:53:44want to go that we have somebody that we can deal with on a local level now given that we'll have to see what happens and hopefully that the rate is competitive with other people but I have all the faith in the world that it will be because of this relationship and

0:54:04I point to back in 2006 when we agreed to a formula on rates on each year how we're going to raise the rates before that it was negotiating we we in 2006 agreed upon a formula by which to go forward and I think that formula was fair obviously as with all formulas it might

0:54:28need adjusting and reevaluating from time to time but we are able to um be able to spend more time on delivering service than negotiating service so um I like that so I think going forward I'm optimistic that we can reach a good a good working relationship with these

0:54:52space sanitary and keeping in mind that the industry I think will be going through a term of serious adjustment on how in the future garbage is picked up and is disposed of so I think this is a good start I I'd like to follow in that comment really quickly by reading a a sentence

0:55:14from the staff report that I think eloquently summarizes this jurisdictions including the cities of Berkeley Fremont Oakland and Palo Alto have made or are exploring changes to their rate structures to stabilize revenues while preserving the incentives to reduce

0:55:30waste and I think that's what we're all keying in response to account migration or this downsizing of the solid waste including charging separately for solid waste recycling and green waste service so I think that that is a great summary of what we're looking for and I I would

0:55:50encourage staff to start that sooner than later and see what the examples are that are out there um you know certainly our goal is to reduce the the waste stream uh as much as possible and and finding ways to do that would be great uh it's it's unfortunate that by the in the service

0:56:11that we're getting is green waste service and in and we're as a service we want to promote and and encourage so not penalizing the larger containers for the greenway service I definitely understand the logic behind that but it does mean that these smaller cans the

0:56:29ones that we would be trying to encourage people to fit into more frequently are are having a disproportionate portion of their increase associated with that service um and so it does fly in the face of trying to get people to downsize and migrate to a smaller size when their increase is the largest

0:56:49increase so I'm not certain where that comment goes other than it's just a commiserating with those that are small can op owners that certainly their their rates are going up a lot um the rates do are going up a lot and we do have a service related goals for why these are going up three percent for

0:57:13Cola three percent due to this waste migration issue that we're talked about and then the dollar 65 flat fee and and those those all are very good reasons for this rate increase and I'm prepared to support it soon um the comment and I would like to make first of all I'd like to agree with what

0:57:34was just said and I'll try not to repeat it at least not too much one of the things I appreciate about the whole process that we heard about tonight is that um while we did a good thing in introducing the new food waste system where no we didn't our staff did not just sort of do it and

0:57:56then walk away from it and say okay it's fine but look to see how well it was working and should there be any changes and improvements made and I'm really happy to see that we are in fact making changes based on looking at how the how the system is operating it makes me feel

0:58:15really good about living in El Cerrito to know that we have a place where we do constantly strive for ways to improve the system and I also like that we're looking at our rate structure to make sure that we're adequately and fairly compensating East Bay sanitary our

0:58:37vendor in this in in much of this and that we want to make sure that you know it's all working out out and that it's working out also for our climate protection goals which I think are very important so I like the way this is all brought together on a more detail note I

0:58:58like the fact that it's a weekly uh pickup for the green waste because not only is it good for the food waste but I think it's also good for the garden waste because I know personally we don't plan every two weeks we'll go trim the trees or whatever it's it's whenever it

0:59:19needs to be done or you have time to do it and then what happens to many people is that it just sits somewhere because it's overflowing whereas what I think this will do is enable us to get it into the Container sooner and and out the door and I'm talking now about the um

0:59:36the yard waste and so I think it'll work overall in a better way for our residents and I appreciate that change and I am looking forward to the analysis it's done in the next year on the rate structure to make sure that it's a fair and Equitable system that's that's being

0:59:57put in place and I'm ready to support this just one comment uh thanks to staff for the detailed report I look forward to continuing updates to the report and especially checking back in with how our projections are kind of truing up or not touring up always great to look back on

1:00:15what we thought would happen would actually happen and I also look forward to working with staff as one of the many thousands of apartment dwellers in El Cerrito and working with my property manager to make sure we can get green waste bins into those multi-family units

1:00:26we have a lot of green waste we are just dying to contribute to our compost pile thank you so do I hear motion on this I'll move to adopt a resolution setting maximum allowable rates the East Bay sanitary company May charge for services provided by the company as identified in

1:00:45the enacting Clause of the resolution effective January 1st 2011. second all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed any upstations motion carries unanimously thank you very much all right this next agenda item I will hand it over to agency chair Abelson thank you this item is about the

1:01:16um oops lost it there about the um creation of a master developer area for the Mosier Lane shopping center and we have I believe a staff presentation on this good evening mayor and members of the city council we're here tonight to talk about the Moser Lane shopping center and our

1:01:48recommendation for master Development Area designation just as a refresher the Moser Lane Center is a neighborhood retail center located on the corner of Moser Lane San Pablo Avenue and anchored by Safeway and CVS the map that we've shown here shows the six Parcels in the center in the layout

1:02:09of the center I now want to cover some concerns that we have about the center in its present State the center has a number of issues the main part of the center was was built in the 1970s and reflects the design of the centers built at that time with anchor stores in the back and

1:02:30parking the front uh with also with the billions that are located in the front of the center on San Pablo Avenue the Safeway and CVS stores that are located at the rear of the property have limited to poor visibility though also though the center is located on San Pablo Avenue it does not have

1:02:47freeway visibility and given the size of the center the location the center and its configuration the site's not likely to attract Regional retail users in that location the last thing I wanted to point out overall is that the center contains five different property owners

1:03:04as such there is not one single ownership group that could work to upgrade the center or make changes to the center to make it more attractive for other users now the anticip the anticipated change of the center uh that are that are happening will also bring additional

1:03:21challenges and more concerns as it stands now there are deed restrictions in the center that prohibit other grocery users in the Safeway space as well as other drugstore users in the center lastly with today's economic conditions there are fewer tenants that are really

1:03:39out there that are subletting vacant grocery store spaces or drugstore spaces in these neighborhood type of centers one class however that is active in this market are discount retailers oh so I want to spend a little bit time talking about Safeway and CVS in particular as you're aware Safeway

1:04:00intends to close their store in this Center when they open their new store in the former Target space Safeway intends to sublease their space in the center to a new tenant for the remaining term of their lease however given the deed restriction against grocery stores and the

1:04:18limitations of the center in today's environment there really are limited options for for what type of tenants could move into that space I also want to point out that that in his current lease Safeway pays a base rent to the property owner and a percentage rate a percentage rent that

1:04:35is based on their gross receipts so I can put this sure um so if if Safeway to work to lease to any other tenant besides a grocery user the new user would most most likely not meet those minimum gross receipt thresholds and Trigger the additional rent payments in summary with the with the impending

1:04:57vacancy of the Safeway space it really presents substantial challenges to the center just shortly about CVS um in conversations that that staff has had with CVS they've expressed an interest in finding location in the north end of town that offers them a little more visibility than the current

1:05:15Center and also offers them the ability to locate into a building that's about half the size of what they currently have so our concern is that if safe work or CVS were to relocate out of the center that space in particular considering the limited visibility that it has in the

1:05:32back would be very difficult for us to uh or or for someone to find new tenant for in order to help us assist with the analysis of the center staff hired a consultant Kaiser Marston Associates and economic development consultant and then we also went out and met with

1:05:53directly with developers to get their feedback on on what they thought about uh feasibility of the center and and different types of development scenarios so all the developers that we talked to really reiterate to us the existing challenges of the site as well as the

1:06:10difficulty of pulling together development when you have five different property owners uh they talked about again that there are really limited number of retailers that are out there in this Marketplace to fill potential vacancies in sizes such as grocery stores and drugstores

1:06:26that they occupy they did say that partial Redevelopment of the site in conjunction with retiniting may be an option additional options that that they threw out would be that you could have a housing component for the site for part or all the site as well as looking at

1:06:41options such as office or medical office so in kind of summary given the limitations of the center and the use restrictions and the multiple owners it's our opinion that's unlikely that the center could reach its highest and best use without some sort of Redevelopment assistance

1:06:58so with that I'd like to turn over to Lori Trevino Redevelopment manager so I'd like to talk um about the master Development Area designation process first of all the process and of doing this designation is really a tool that it's a tool that's available to the agency to do several

1:07:21things it would enable the agency to address some of the concerns that Dwayne just described it would expand the possibilities that are available to the agency and possibly also to the property owners in the center and it would enable the agency to achieve a positive outcome

1:07:39for the community by pursuing that highest and best use for the site under California Redevelopment law agencies are able to solicit and select developers and proposals for redevelopment of private property to negotiate elements of a project on that property participate financially in that project

1:07:58and even to condemn a property if the board deems it necessary to do so and able to in order to enable that Master development to proceed and given the sensitivity of condemnation as an issue I am going to come back to that in just a moment the process for designating that site

1:08:15the site a master Development Area includes several steps first the agency would pass a resolution this evening that it's in the best interest of the overall Redevelopment project area that the parcels be assembled and developed by a master developer as a unified project

1:08:31the agency would then invite development proposals um and provide the developers any sort of guidance that they would like that they think is appropriate proposals that include an existing owner are given preference but the agency can also weigh that against its goals and

1:08:52priorities for the project even if the proposal does not include an include an owner I also wanted to note that the agency doesn't have any obligation to give preference to a proposal that includes a tenant in any of these properties though you the agency board

1:09:10may choose to do so um if the solicitation doesn't result in a proposal that the agency thinks is acceptable there's lots of options can reject the proposals solicit additional proposals change the concept that they're looking for um or just choose not to proceed at all

1:09:30should a proposal be selected then the agency would negotiate an exclusive negotiating rights agreement which is also referred to as an inra with a selected developer and an inra outlines the process for negotiating a subsequent agreement which would be a master

1:09:46disposition and development agreement referred to as a DDA um and the inro would include excuse me the um the DDA also includes a requirement for the project to be entitled through the city's regular entitlement process so going back one oh actually no go back one

1:10:16um so I wanted to talk a little bit more about owner participation um staff's experience thus far is that um the greatest hindrance to Redevelopment of the center is site assembly developers have repeatedly stated that that's the primary reason that a developer a developer would not

1:10:35attempt a project without the agency demonstrating some willingness to assist and facilitate in some way which this designation would do through this process the owners of properties in the center would have an ability to participate in a project which is not available to them right now without

1:10:53facing the same challenges that any other developer would face um through this process should you wish to go forward the staff would facilitate contact between the property owners and developers so that they would be able to explore any mutually beneficial development scenarios particularly that

1:11:11could include voluntary acquisition or owner participation but should that not occur the selected developer may ask the agency to assist in some way um which could include condemnation so should that possibility come about the board would have several um opportunities considered to consider the

1:11:33issues involved in condemnation before actually making any decision um specifically um the agency would be required to make a fair market value offer based on an appraisal um the Redevelopment Law requires that the owner of a property is fairly compensated um the agency would all also have to pay

1:11:53for the property owner in question to get an appraisal and the agency would have to leave their offer available to the owner for a reasonable period of time and if the owner doesn't accept the agency's offer any condemnation action has to be considered at a public meeting

1:12:09with proper notification of the property owner and proper findings uh related to the use the ReUse of the site and condemnation does require a super majority of four out of five votes also important to note that by approving this designation that we're recommending

1:12:30the agency doesn't and it cannot commit itself to condemning any properties um and that would only be a last resort but I want to reiterate the that the intention of what we're proposing is to facilitate a deal that is in everybody's interest um and would pursue the highest use of

1:12:47the site so let's just go to next steps now um so the solicitation um should you approve this list the uh the resolution agents the agency staff would issue a solicitation to the development Community it would request submittals of developer qualifications including their

1:13:06experience capability and financial capacity and also their vision for the site which would be in the form of a development concept they would not be required to develop a detailed project proposal which would really deter developers due to the cost to produce um

1:13:24they would need to demonstrate capability and financial capacity to carry out the project of the type that they are conceptualizing um in essence this process would pre-qualify developers to go to to a next phase with the agency and would provide some broad guidance as to the

1:13:41agency's goals and interests we do believe that there's sufficient information in the general plan and the specific plan that's underway um to outline the agency's goals and principles for the solicitation and the developer would be asked to maximize the degree to which their development

1:13:58concept meets the various Community goals including economic cultural and physical Vitality as well as sustainability in Environmental Quality more specifically the consideration would be given to including some neighborhood serving retail intensifying development but at a human scale and in

1:14:16keeping with the neighboring areas Orient orientation towards San Pablo Avenue and Moser Lane and the transit opportunities there having some Synergy with the Ohlone Greenway and other amenities in the area and high quality design that would contribute to the character of the project and would

1:14:37incorporate green features and some visual interest and lastly walkability including pedestrian safety um I want to stress that in the current market staff is recommending um that it's important not to predetermine what development concept is preferred for as long as possible it's really important

1:14:57to recognize that the the market is really difficult right now and it's very difficult to predict what is possible at this time we really need to let find out what the market says first about what's viable um Concepts that might be presented could include all of the parcels or just some

1:15:16of the parcels depending on what the developer sees is most feasible we're proposing that no land use mix would be excluded but um that the that the developer proposes Concepts that appear to be financially viable um some developers most developers specialize in certain types of

1:15:35development and most likely if they're if their typical development concept wouldn't fit with their understanding of the agency schools they would May well self-select and not make a proposal um let's see uh excuse me the solicitation would require the developer to provide evidence of the

1:16:06Project's fundability feasibility its fiscal impact however preliminary that is um to show that they have a development concept that they believe is feasible and if they believe that a concept is not feasible without any agency Assistance or some sort of changes to

1:16:22the general planner zoning we'd ask we'll ask that they identify that as well so we can you can take that into consideration so after that pre-qualification the agency staff would select a smaller number of developers to explore some more detailed concepts for the agency to

1:16:38consider um and we would intend for those to select those that demonstrate the financial capacity but also our most responsible responsible to the agency's goals during that period staff would continue to facilitate contact between the developers and owners so that they could

1:17:00have more detailed responses that demonstrate the project viability um which will greatly rely on the willingness of the property owners to participate or sell their property one thing of note the owners of the properties can choose to be parties to more than one proposal

1:17:21so the staff plans to return to the board by April with the most viable Concepts and developments cons developers that have demonstrated their ability to perform on a project the form of that presentation to the board is really it's going to depend greatly on the number and type of submittals that

1:17:42we receive particularly the variation in types of land uses intensity and viability of the projects so if we have you know all residential proposals that's one could lead to one form of consideration but if we have retail office and housing those are really a different comparison that the agency

1:18:03would need to make um it is important to note that in the current market the agency may end up in a position of having to consider which of its goals are higher in priority and make some trade-offs in terms of enabling the Project's viability particularly if the agency is asked to

1:18:23subsidize a project as a result of the developer being asked to add an element to their project to address an agency goal that's costly to the project um so whatever the form of the selection process um the selected developer will um begin negotiating with the agency for an

1:18:43NRA I do want to note that time is of the essence for getting to a negotiation of an enter because of the impending closure of the Safeway store and their need to make a decision about whether to re-tenant the store so once an inra is negotiated that document lays out the process for

1:19:02negotiating at the DDA and all the terms of that DDA um throughout that inner process we would anticipate coming back to the board for regular input and decision any decision points whether that's an open session or closed session if it's appropriate developers in this situation where

1:19:23there's um uh some ambiguity will periodically want some guidance from the agency on its willingness to consider certain terms and conditions particularly if they need assistance with property acquisition as they're talking with the property owners and trying to involve

1:19:37them in a project a project can evolve and it might require extensions of that NRA to allow for changes in the directions of a project should the board wish to continue along that that road um so lastly um I wanted to note that all the property owners have been notified of

1:19:57their opportunity to speak at the meeting tonight or to submit written comments I have received no written comments I did receive a phone call today which was unclear whether it was related to this item or not and it may have been but I wasn't able to make contact with that person

1:20:12um but regardless Property Owners do have the opportunity to speak tonight and that occurs during the regular public comment period so um Dwayne and I are here to answer any questions as well as Karen Peterman who's our agency Council and Mitch who's our economic development director thank

1:20:31you I'd like to start with any questions before we go to public comment if any um Joni Rebecca yeah I do um I just have a couple questions thanks for the presentation uh first of all when it says in the staff report you noted that uh the project should appear to be financially feasible to both the

1:20:51developer and the agency does that mean in the solicitation that we'll be looking for proposers to State how much agency money they meet nay they may request for a certain project or you're just looking for them to state that the agency will participate in some way

1:21:09uh my hope would be that well the solicitation would ask them would State the agency's preference that they present a financially viable proposal um and and if they're not able to do so without agency assistance to identify what they think that is we want them to

1:21:26be as specific as they can be and when you were corresponding or interviewing developers what was their reaction to this sort of a process and you know to propose on a project like this that would be interacting with the agency prior to sort of interacting with

1:21:41the property owners I'll let Dwayne weigh out on this too if he wants but I would say they actually encourage this kind of process because they felt if they were asked to develop a very detailed proposal without um a lot of interaction that they just wouldn't do it because it's it's a very

1:21:58costly process for them to go through and it tends to be rather unsuccessful given the amount of of effort that they put into it so a lot of developers just select not to to go through an RFP they'd rather go for go through an RFQ where they give their qualifications and

1:22:16the agency selects a developer to work with in forming the project um rather than being that specific and they are they so almost I think they all stated that preference for that process that way okay um can you uh tell me how large I'm sorry I didn't notice how large the site is and

1:22:40then is there an idea that in the solicitation given that there may be some you know small property hold out that maybe doesn't want to participant they Pro participate in the process no matter what uh would it be your thought that we could include in the solicitation something like give us your

1:22:56plan or your ideas for the entire site but also provide us with an idea of the minimum acreage you would need to you know prepare a complete site or a completely thought that far but I think that would be a good idea to give them ask them to give us whatever uh you know options they think would be

1:23:14possible that sound right right and the site's approximately four acres okay thank you those are all my questions for now I do thank you for the presentation um I am hoping if you could just because this Council definitely has not gone through this type of proceeding just remind us

1:23:33and and the public um the the agency's past history of doing assembly foreign might have a a more uh his history here you wanna chime in uh yes um the agency has used the master developer process and site assembly process uh several times he used it with the exist

1:23:58the no longer Target site um Del Norte place I'm going to get these names confused and I always tell Lori I can't keep him straight Del Norte plays you use site assembly Del Norte Marketplace you also use site assembly you also began the process on the East Shore triangle that was originally part

1:24:20of a larger project and so you did some initial site assembly there many years back you also initiated the process on the Plaza several years ago when it was in multiple ownership and declared it a master developer site and selected a master developer and then the master developer determined the

1:24:42project was infeasible so you have used the process several times thank you and then um if you could speak to if just get a reminder of Safeway's timeline for completing their uh Target reuse project I think the uh the last we've heard they're pushing for summer of next year

1:25:04remember okay and then finally I guess um of the developers you did speak with what types of Specialties did they represent in terms of the different you all the different products from office to mixed use or residential I was just curious to hear if you got a full

1:25:23spectrum or there was um one that was a a large um National developer that did everything from straight retail to office to mixed use and residential um there was a local you can sorry can you include the names too just so if you remember if you recall them well that was low development

1:25:50um we spoke with um city city Ventures which is a newly formed uh residential developer in San Francisco um we spoke with Steve Oliver Oliver and Company he's actually uh his he's primarily a contractor but has a lot of development partners um Simeon properties which is a developer

1:26:17of of several residential and mixed-use projects in Emeryville and Richmond there's one more who was a general mixed-use type of developer yeah uh in reading a staff there was a little bit of history but when you were looking back on the history of the parcels do you know how

1:26:46they were originally joined how did we get five folks or five entities to join in for one development or was it developed that way I know there was three times three three three times where things were added to the project it wasn't developed um in sync the the gas station was

1:27:07developed separately um the store that now houses DaVita Dialysis was originally a paint store and it proceeded all of those two preceded all the develop the rest of the development the buildings that um a house Craig and CVS Safeway and all of the other retail to the South were

1:27:31part of one um development process but there were there were two or three property owners who did that in concert so they joined and they have common parking and that are not necessarily Common Parking um while they have they probably have cross access easements

1:27:53yes but in practice it it's one parking lot in practice Yeah okay thank you uh when you talk to the developers did they indicate if they felt there was any interest in that even if we or what was what did they uh let me put it another way did they did they feel that there were

1:28:20going to be uh a number of interested developers or a few or what did they think in this given the site given the economy was there any yeah um I think all the developers that we talk to express an interest in the project you know based on their particular expertise

1:28:40um you know they did point out that there are still strong developers out there in this Marketplace and they're out there looking for projects um so getting back to the point that we made before they did then say that you know the the preference that they were hoping for would be the process where

1:28:57they could you know give a general submission without spending a lot of time in that process and then having it narrowed down no I understand so you're confident that there will be a number of people that initially will be interested then depending on how things go we'll

1:29:12we'll see where it ends up the theme that we heard though is that they wouldn't nobody would be interested in doing this without some agency assistance because it's just too hard to assemble that many properties on their own no yeah and that was really the key they said if that was possible that they

1:29:26believe that lots of developers would be interested for all different types types of uses you're written in your uh oral presentation I I think adequately stated that this is why we're here tonight basically yeah thanks um where is their public input in this process

1:29:49the assembly you you you're saying you're going to come back with a recommendation in April that's four months so where does the public input where does the public get to weigh in on this besides the April meeting well the way we're currently conceiving it that would be the next opportunity

1:30:10for input on the developer and it really depends on um you know what we get what that looks like we felt like we needed to keep it as open as possible initially right no I know but let's say in April you come back and say well it looks like that the best thing is to put all houses there and and so

1:30:31where does the public get the comment on whether they want a housing would they would like to see a Housing Development or a mixed use or whatever besides the one meeting is there a meeting where the developers would meet in a public meeting and hear what the public has to say

1:30:49I don't think that's required but it's certainly something we can ask them to do or um what I'm trying to avoid is we come April there's a there's a recommendation and then all of a sudden there's some serious uh public blowback to it or at least comment and then we have to stop the process and and

1:31:12you know the 11th the old 11th Hour type of thing so I would just ask that you you see where we could build that in uh before that April meeting it's not uncommon to require the developer to to have some interaction with the neighborhood yes I was going to suggest that

1:31:30yeah thanks and then uh were it sounded like we were able to find all the parties all five parties to communicate this meeting to right because I understand that it wasn't the most easiest thing in the world is that correct yeah right I think the main ones were easy to find

1:31:51the harder ones are where where you have a ownership of a property that's in a partnership that has a PO box and and no phone number so there was some difficulty in getting touch with people but we did dissatisfying I think councils Shake indicating so we did properly notify everybody and we're

1:32:10confident that we contacted the proper owners the proper people for ownership right okay are there any owners that are that live in El Cerrito ah yes well perhaps the owners of the gas station but what I we don't know their home address we know that the business

1:32:33address is the same as the mailing address okay and and answer me on you okay there is or there isn't uh I know so there's one there's one and the rest are absentee I'm with JP properties and you live in El Cerrito okay that could be that could be somebody could repeat that

1:33:01near a mic so what the public can know what that is sure um I believe that was Mr Stanley who is um is the owner of the Safeway Property and the property that adjacent that includes the numerous smaller retailers and what he said is that he lives in Sacramento okay and the other uh the

1:33:20lady back there what what she said actually so the the owner of the gas station owns in Fremont okay as far as you know we have absentee owners at that site correct yes okay thank you very much okay Greg um our point of clarification the deed restrictions in the staff reported

1:33:43talked about deed restrictions just being on the drugstore use uh that the grocery restriction was going to essentially be through the lease uh for the continuing lease on the Safeway Property so it's so there is no actual deed restriction against grocery stores which

1:34:01is what your oral testimony was in the other in the other um properties there is a deed restriction against groceries and the other properties that's inconsistent with the staff report that staff report says that the deed restrictions are just uh drugstore so that's why I'm asking the question

1:34:22my recollection the um says known prohibited uses it doesn't say deed restrictions prohibited uses in this case the way I read it was that the grocery was prohibited through anticipated at least you know renter renter restrictions there's a there's a a deed restriction on title

1:34:48um that prohibits drugstore use in um multiple sites including the Safeway site and the Kragen correct and at the grocery store uses would would be prohibited through the the anticipated lease the continued leasing by Safeway that's the way it read that's why I'm

1:35:15asking this question because you your oral Testament was different no I my the deed restriction continues on the other properties um and CVS there is no restriction let's be clear sorry I've introduced some by interrupting you I've introduced some confusion all right

1:35:31the deed restriction is strictly for drugstore use there's a drugstore restriction on all the properties except for the CVS property and the grocery store restriction is not a deed restriction no it's a deed restriction the grocery store prohibited prohibition is a deed

1:35:54restriction yes on on all the because that's because that wasn't clear so that's that's why I'm asking okay you know I I can go back and clarify I have a copy of the of the deed restrictions um they're ccnr's and they were amended to allow grocery uses in the CVS subsequent to the

1:36:18initial ccnrs so my understanding is that the only property within the uh Pro within the shopping center portion that was developed in the 70s right excludes the corners groceries are only allowed were initially only allowed in the Safeway store okay and subsequently

1:36:40those deed restrictions were amended to allow groceries in the CVS and there were some other amendments to give the benefit similar there was a there was a give and take so that there were other things allowed to be sold in the Safeway site okay does that answer your question it does

1:36:57it does thank you um with regards and and agency member Jones brought this up about public input into the goals and I want to make sure it's clear that that what you're asking us tonight it to do is to essentially uh you are soliciting our input on the goals as they were bulleted and as you

1:37:17read out out loud you did you did read the goals um without necessarily ranking them in any way that those are the goals I think it was seven bullets can't count Six Bullets um and and I just want to make sure that that that's what your expectation is is that's the goals you're going to put

1:37:37into the solicitation is the goals that are listed there um do we know if there's any contamination and I don't understand the owners here is there any contamination under the the gas station site that would uh discourage uh developers from incorporating that one into the into the

1:37:55we don't know I'm we wouldn't have access to any reports could that be repeated into the microphone so yeah that the member in the audience is is saying that it's not contaminated um based on groundwater monitoring that has occurred at the site she said the state

1:38:20um certified that it was not contaminated right that that's good news for we're not aware of that but I believe that you know and I'm assuming that that type of information would be useful to anybody who is looking at this so I was asking the question to see if

1:38:36we are planning on doing any type of phase one analysis or something that developers have that information that would be required of the developer through the NRA that they would do that kind of work oh so so they're they're they're their response to the solicitation would

1:38:52not have to have that kind of knowledge in it no it would not might be helpful to them but it wouldn't be required um that's it for my questions thank you okay um let's see if I I have a few I think um so in in the discussion about neighbor who um neighborhood serving

1:39:18what what area do we mean when my my take on that would be walk an area that's walkable to the site in the media neighbor in the yeah our take was on the immediate adjacent neighborhoods that people could walk to the center the um the reason I asked that question is

1:39:36that when I go to that Center and I don't live near that Center I live in the south area of town I see a lot of people who live up in the hills um shopping there so would they be excluded from that neighborhood serving I mean I'm just wondering who who the audience for the services

1:39:59of a proposed Center would be you know what I'm saying yeah I mean I think part of when we use the term neighborhood serving it wasn't necessarily saying that it was just for that it was really more of a description of the of the type of of uses that are in that Center

1:40:20so as opposed to saying that that a specific retailer would only be serving that specific neighborhood it was more of a distinction between neighborhood type of uses versus say Regional shopping center type of uses okay so it does I mean it doesn't mean that we

1:40:37would go 300 feet or a thousand feet or whatever it means that it's something you would expect to buy in your community as opposed to maybe going to San Francisco to buy some it's probably something you buy frequently right I mean it would be sort of the contrast between a Fry's Electronics and

1:40:57a safe way right or services that you uh like a cleaners for example that you uh frequent say weekly versus um buying a car which you theoretically don't do that often um I had a question then about the wording that I think you said would be included and I think that was the wording under

1:41:22goals the bullets that's what we're talking about a little bit earlier correct it starts out inclusion of at least some amount of neighborhood serving retail that's the first bullet we're talking about that would be included but there's some language before that the sentence

1:41:38uh the sort of that starts out the developer would be asked to maximize the degree to which Concepts meet Community goals including economic cultural and physical viability as well as sustainability and Environmental Quality I would hope that that language would

1:41:55also be there would it that would be my intent yeah okay I just wanted to verify then in fact that would be true um and then so so after you would go out for this solicitation then it would come back to the council and to the public in our community for um comment and I would think at that point

1:42:19we would then talk about our vision um based on whatever responses we get by type of response so for example if we got a a recommendation for office use and an OP another recommendation for retail use then we would talk about whether or not we liked office use or retail use

1:42:46um or let's say we got two responses but they were housing versus retail then we would talk about that is that how you would see that going that process at that point in time is that what that would look like yes I the only point I would add in addition to that what I what we think

1:43:08what staff thinks is largely going to drive this is it won't just be do you want off is do you like the office proposal better than the housing proposal it's going to be how much does the office proposal cost or generate versus that the housing I think what what you're seeing and the way we've

1:43:26developed assistation is the economy is first and foremost driving development right now and as Laurie alluded to when you when you come back hopefully with choices you're gonna probably have to look at what are the what are any number of priorities the agency is trying to

1:43:47accomplish but cost or potential Revenue are going to be two two big ones okay uh or the other thing would be the fact that it would provide a needed service uh but maybe not the revenue because not all things provide Revenue but we may still need them um because they are essential Services

1:44:14um the other this is a question and it's maybe just my ignorance showing through but uh I had a question about deed restrictions and um if there's a that means it's uh filed with the pro the title on the property is that what that means that's what that means okay and so is there ever a way to

1:44:34change that I would assume somehow there is and then what would you have to do to do that well the property owners would have to agree to amend them any property owners that are involved so Karen I don't know if you have anything further to add to that right I mean if the property uh came

1:44:55into single ownership those data restrictions benefit on the property owners of the shopping center so if the property became under single ownership that owner could get rid of those date restrictions because they only benefit that property the agency also can condemn deed restrictions although it's

1:45:16not very often done and so are they considered to have a value yes they are considered to have a value okay that's that's a good answer I mean I just I just wanted to know and that was a good that was a very good explanation thank you um so it would seem to me that

1:45:34um I understand correctly that there are some things that do bring dollar value to our community and then there are other things that bring services and we in order to live in a community need both and I would assume that they would both types of things which would be sales

1:45:57things that say produce sales tax revenue and things like groceries themselves for example which don't produce sales tax revenue but try and live without food can't do it you know the essential they are essential so that both of those things would have value in

1:46:17that Vision discussion just as an example and so we would be looking at that and able to say after we see the Alternatives we like this or we like that or we don't like any of it we could also say none of it is something that we're looking for right now so okay with that why don't we

1:46:41move on unless there are some further questions I believe that we have at least one public speaker but that's what I was wanting to move on to actually so would you call the public speakers please Karen actually I don't have a speaker slip but sir if you'd like to

1:46:55speak and then fill out a speaker slip later you can go ahead and speak right now and if there are any other persons I think they could do the same thing to see the um green light the yellow light and the red light when your time is completed okay go ahead uh good evening mayor and council member

1:47:13my name is Stan Lee I'm with j p properties we're the owner of the Safeway portion of the center that includes Safeway the H R Block the clean Express uh the Pizza Roma and also the Prudential Real Estate the city of El Cerrito Redevelopment agency board believes on its own that is

1:47:34the best interest to consolidate the six parcels and allow it to be developed by Master developer our question is what is the urgency for this resolution is the property in a state of disrepair no is there a large amount of vacancy if any no are windows boarded up no does it

1:47:55probably look abandoned no is the center played by crime activity no we think this resolution is premature and unwarranted at this time due to the economic and the Press real estate condition it is not in the best interest to force Property Owners into this resolution and potentially disrupt the

1:48:15livelihood of some of the small business owners so please reconsider on this resolution thank you very much thank you so are there any other speakers from the public okay I don't see any okay so with that we'll bring it back to the um Redevelopment Agency for consideration

1:48:39are there any comments Mr Bill yeah and it was maybe I'll be able to answer some of the questions that was just asked but ideally I'd rather not have the Redevelopment agency involved with the improvements of the of the property I would much rather have the private

1:49:06sector and or the existing owners take care of improving and developing the center however the Redevelopment agency may have to take an active role in this situation given the pending move of Safeway and the possibility of a big vacant building in the middle of San

1:49:25Pablo Avenue and or the creation of a low-performing shopping center in the middle of town it's my understanding that there has been various offers for redevelopment of the property by private interests including consideration by Safeway five owners have proven hard to get an

1:49:45agreement on any type of improvement or expansion plan and this is unfortunate the Redevelopment agency has consulted with private shopping areas and Center developers of we've heard and they indicate that at the time that the center was built it was designed with

1:50:03the current ideas about retail trade however they also commented that the center to be viable and successful commercial asset to the community now and in the future should be redesigned and developed especially in this current economic environment um and I think it's important to keep in

1:50:25mind the relatively recent past El Cerrito has seen with its commercial developments the El Cerrito Plaza turned into a virtual ghost shopping center becoming a big negative commercial hole for seven years or more before it was sold and completely redeveloped into a thriving

1:50:46Commercial Center the former Target site will have been shut down and vacant for over three years by the time Safeway opens in the same spot as we've seen over the years nothing is less appealing than a big vacant building and parking lot on San Pablo Avenue also several buildings on San Pablo

1:51:09Avenue are dated and in need of upgrading for many years there and this is my favorite one for many years there's been a vacant building a parking lot at the old lucky store on the corner of McDonald and San Pablo Avenue a small part of that only a small part of it is in El Cerrito but the property

1:51:32borders Baxter Creek and our city limits referring again to this site there's been several offers from private developers to purchase the site at market value and in some cases above is my understanding only be turned away by the landowner the site is a continual ice storm blight

1:51:56on both Richmond and the city of El Cerrito it's a great example of a landlord that does not place value in the concept of supporting Community I'm not saying that about the owners at Mosher Lane but I am saying that about the land the property owner at Lucky's

1:52:18so it's my conclusion that we don't need a repeat this type of vacancy at Mosher Lane and San Pablo Avenue we need a center that can serve the community successfully present in the future I see tonight's action as a required procedural step that will allow the Redevelopment agency to formally engage

1:52:40with the current ownership of the center to actively sleep seek development that is better situated to attract viable businesses and will be a success of for commercial Affairs of the city and to the community we need to act now and not wait like we were forced to do

1:53:01in the Target situation further I suspect that CVS will in fact at some point move they've made their intentions that they would like to stay in El Cerrito but prop perhaps move north as we heard our staff report if this happens then the center will be first furtherly challenged as the

1:53:26developers and the Consultants that we have consulted with had said um it's very apparent from the comments made by residents either in a formal survey or just informally that they want the center at Mosier Lane to support their needs they don't want a half vacant property in the area and I

1:53:49heard that once people knew that Safeway was moving out of there they were concerned that they won't they would not have uh businesses for what they need so if a master development designation is approved tonight the agency must follow State Redevelopment law and El Cerrito Redevelopment rules and

1:54:12procedures engaging the current Center owners and businesses in the process these procedures and requirements are outlined as we've heard in the staff report and they're available to anybody who has an interest and wants to see them not only can the current owners prepare

1:54:32or one of the owners prepare a proposal for the master develop but they can also become part of a master development that is proposed by another developer so there is ample opportunity for all the owners to either participate or not participate in this exercise and I think

1:54:54that's an important part to paraphrase a comment that was made by Target during their plans to move their business out of their former site they had indicated in so many words that their first priority was to take care of their own business and their own interests before they turn their

1:55:15attention to the need for a new tenant at the El Cerrito site and we saw how that turned out for El Cerrito three years of vacancy I say then that the agency has an obligation to look to the interests of the community and our residents as our first priority we need a quality Center for a quality

1:55:38City the action tonight will allow the agency to be as involved as it needs to be in order for a suitable Center without large vacancies to be developed in the middle of El Cerrito and on San Pablo Avenue I encourage the five owners to become seriously involved with the process and

1:55:56contribute to the future of their Center and the future of our community we need a plan to go forward and the time is now to start thank you okay now and Echo those comments uh agency member Jones just made the economic Times now is the time to start planning so that we do have a project

1:56:18that can move forward as the economy changes over the next couple of years so it's not something that's going to happen overnight there will be a long process before it's drawn out and and as a result there will be potentially some vacancies at this location long before

1:56:37we ever see what the the future brings um so I I think it's important for us to keep moving forward I do appreciate that we do have some of the property owners here tonight I thank you for coming long distances to to hear and participate in this deliberation so I do

1:56:54want to thank you for coming um and and so I actually have a request that the resolution be modified slightly tonight to include uh something that's in the staff report but is not in the resolution uh and that is to make sure that the preference is given to the the

1:57:11uh property the current owners that's not in the actually the resolution but it's clearly stated in the staff report um and so I I was going to propose that the second to last resolution uh paragraph have a sentence added to it I think it's it's number Arabic number three on page

1:57:31two have a sentence added to that that reflects um the following staff uh sentence which says proposals that include an existing owner remaining party to the development must be given preference so it says goes on to say the agency can well also weigh its Redevelopment goals

1:57:55and objectives to select who whoever best meets the the goals but as currently written the resolution does not provide the current ownership any preference so I I would recommend that we make some sort of uh proposal to that effect um and I also want to make sure that

1:58:17everyone knows the master developer area designation does not commit the Redevelopment agency to anything specific at this time um it it's a tool that I'm hoping will be a great motivator to the Private Industry to the five owners for them to pool their resources and participate in

1:58:37this process so that we do get a quality Center for a quality City sure um so I am also ready to support this creation of the master Development Area at the Mosier Lane shopping center having grown up in El Cerrito I often frequented that site and uh the years of

1:59:04use is definitely shown and I have to disagree with the owner that it's it's behind and I think given the impending Safeway closure it's you know we've heard loud and cleared from work from our community and our community is trying to live more sustainably and and

1:59:20do things close by and have more services close by within walking distance um knowing that I think we're doing our due diligence for our community by essentially starting the the process and again I think it's very clear that we have a lot of options we're not signing

1:59:37ourselves up for um anything specific at this point but simply throwing um throwing it out there to the public to hear that or to the to the development community that we're ready and we're interested and we're serious um and we'll we'll entertain um options and I have to also I would

1:59:59like actually this one I agree with all the goals I think they're very clear and very outcome oriented and um I think the one thing is the I have a um request that the the fourth bullet point regarding the Elena Greenway when we say Synergy I think I think what we really mean is

2:00:22that there's dual orientation of the future of any future proposal to open up on the greenway so that there's effectively two entries or multiple entries and just because Synergy can is is very open-ended but otherwise I think that's our intent anyway but just trying

2:00:42to be more explicit um I know redevelopment's a really scary word and there's there's a lot of history and baggage with it but I I hope that it's really clear here we've laid out all the steps that we're we're explicitly just looking for you know people to throw their hat in and to show

2:00:59share um their portfolios of past work and we'll have the opportunity to see how that aligns with our goals um so I thank you also um to the to the owners who have come tonight to participate in this discussion I know it's it's not every day that you have to deal with this type of

2:01:18of um you know I activity but it's it's needed and that's why we have a Redevelopment agency we have the privilege to invoke these powers for the sake of making our community better so thank you I'd like to just Echo uh what agency member Jones said these sorts of

2:01:41decisions I think are taken with a lot of thoughtfulness on the part of all the members particularly when it comes to interacting with property owners and being respectful of their rights while still upholding our responsibilities to our community in my day job we talk a

2:01:56lot about retail Trends and unfortunately I think the sort of thing that we're looking at today is um going to be something that we're going to continue to face when you look at uh the square footage of retail on a per capita basis the U.S is far and above and many other countries over the

2:02:13last several years or over the last decade or so we've just really expanded our retail space and unfortunately with tough Economic Times and also um the prevalence and the continuing increase of online purchases that people make I think we were at five percent of

2:02:28all retail purchases online a couple years ago and today I heard we were at nine percent so it's going to be tough for retail Health Centers and Retail is known for Reinventing itself constantly but in these sorts of times especially with multiple property owners it's very

2:02:45tough to revitalize those centers without a master developer or other sorts of interventions to get the property owners to get together and think about a plan that could benefit everybody the community as well as the owners so I just wanted to make that comment and I'm ready to move on when

2:03:04everybody else is okay thank you I do have a comment about council member lyman's proposal to add a sentence I'm a little bit concerned about it I don't know if it could be reworded in a way that would make it more acceptable to me my concern is that it as worded indicates to me at least

2:03:23that if there were an owner involved in a proposal that the rest of it could be anything whatsoever and it would get precedence over anything else being proposed because there isn't anything here that I mean it just seems to say that to me I would tend to agree with you but that's the

2:03:46way the staff report suggested it must be they used a very strong word must so I'm not certain what the guidance from the rules are but it it very clearly says that the that you know the if there's a property owner in The Proposal there's there's a there's a preference

2:04:04and right now the the actual resolution that we are considering does not discuss the fact that there's a preference to the current owners so my concern would be then that what that might lead to depending on the details unless some wording were put in there a little bit

2:04:20differently would be that it would lead to us just not doing anything um which I don't think is really what we were wanting to it to lead to so it it doesn't I mean it's somehow we have to make sure that the rest of I don't I don't have an objection to having you

2:04:45know the existing property owners in there that's absolutely fine with me but to say that then anything else can be in the mix uh without consideration as to its characteristics and does concern me so if we could figure out a way I don't think that's what I'm trying to say

2:05:02either though I I agree with you that's not that isn't what I'm intending to do right and that's how it reads to me as as I wrote it down maybe we can get an explanation of that or a suggestion right I think what I'd like to do is make a suggestion because um and this is always the challenge with

2:05:20preference and we always struggle with what it actually means but the way your rules read is that your owner participation rules is that there's a preference but you don't have to give the preference when you take into account all of your goals and objectives and that actually is consistent with all

2:05:37of the California court cases in this area of law because your goals and objectives also have to have some weight in this decision so I think what I would suggest is if I got the language that agency member Lyman proposed correctly is proposals that included an existing

2:05:55owner must be given preference I would suggest we say proposals that included an existing owner will be given preference taking into account the Redevelopment agency's goals and objectives for the site that's an acceptable proposal I was only reading from the uh from the staff report

2:06:15earlier I was not married to any particular language yet is this preference already explicitly described in part three of the rules what part three of the rules says is proposals that meet the minimum standards for selection the agency should give such preference as it deems

2:06:35appropriate under the circumstances to existing owners of one or more Parcels that are part of the uniform unified development so so it's technically already inside this resolution as a reference to part three which we didn't have right readily available okay so it would it's nice to

2:06:53have it re restated but what you're saying is that it was already inside part three thank you so then getting back to I guess what my concern was that would mean then that the fact that an owner was participating did would not make that proposal come in automatically number one

2:07:15exactly so if you got a proposal with an owner in it that contained uses that didn't meet your goals and objectives in any way that would not force you to accept that proposal because you also the proposals have to meet your goals and objectives okay great and isn't are there any more

2:07:36further comments since Karen was there I it was correctly stated though whatever decision we make we have to make findings correct yes you do yes so therefore whether we give preference or don't give preference we have to have findings on that so it's understood by everybody why

2:07:56we took the action exactly and your decisions always have to be consistent with your Redevelopment plan overall goals and objectives so that's the basic premise of under which you operate great okay thank you so with that I would like to move to us to pass this resolution of the city of

2:08:14El Cerrito Redevelopment agency designated specified Parcels in the city of El Cerrito Redevelopment project area as a master Development Area for redevelopment by one or more Master Developers and incorporating this adjusted language I heard that we're referencing it by

2:08:32that we don't need to make I'd like to have it redundant I mean I understand it is redundant but I would like to have it redundant that there would be a preference for property owners in and taken into consideration are I'm looking for Karen but I can't get eye contact taking into consideration

2:08:51the agency's goals the goals and objectives the goals and objectives I will accept that yeah as entered into the record I can second that with that if the friendly movement has been adopted any further discussion ready for emotion for um voting okay all in favor please say aye aye aye the

2:09:15objection and abstention motion carries unanimously and with that I will uh turn the meeting back over to our mayor [Applause] so our last item is simply um to approve the appointments for 2011 Council Liaisons to various boards and commissions um I will cite just ask that we cite the the contents

2:09:40of our agenda packet and uh with that move us on to council liaison reports okay um I have a couple of minor things uh with the league of California cities I um have been reappointed for this upcoming year to the um State Community Services policy committee and also the

2:10:09state level administrative services policy committee and the meetings will be held at the same time as the new council member training so I will vote for those of you who are going to that I will see you up there uh on I think Thursday and Friday and um I was at WIC Tac we reorganized that

2:10:31and uh Royce rear engine from Pinole was elected chair and I was elected vice chair and that's all I have to report anyone else sure since we last met the financial Advisory Board met to review our investment policy and our overall Financial policy I think it's Financial

2:11:04policy which includes the reserve fund um and they are um debated them to comments and will expect to review revised minor revisions and make recommendations in January councilmember Jones any reports no other than I'd like to wish everybody a a good holiday season and the best it's a good

2:11:31time for family friends and anything else to celebrate so have a good time we'll see you in January thank you and my one report out is from the West contra cost or I'm sorry for the the West County mayors that met last Thursday morning and the next meeting will be January 27th 8 A.M at our city

2:11:54hall we'll be hosting for the next few meetings so invite all of you to join if you'd like to participatively conveniently located here um and with that I would like to adjourn our current concurrent city council Redevelopment agency meeting and also wish everybody a happy

2:12:12holiday and happy New Year um our next meeting will be uh since we canceled the January 3rd meeting will be January 18th after Martin Luther King holiday