Concurrent City Council and Redevelopment Agency Meeting February 7, 2011

0:00:40absent and mayor Chang here thank you if you could have the Pledge of Allegiance led by council member Jones please join me I pledge allegiance of the United States [Music] one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign right now time for Council

0:01:15Communications and and staff Communications if I could announce really quick that we um are withdrawing item number six the fire hazard abatement public hearing um if anyone is here for item number six I'm pleased to announce that the city manager has drawn item number six the

0:01:34fire hazard abatement hearing today we were informed by Chief Maples that the fire department has been advised that the property owners will Abate the nuisance voluntarily thus negating any need for public hearing this evening so for those of you in the public who might

0:01:49have been wanting to speak on that tonight they're they're you will not need to do that um so thank you for coming and so thank you for to the to the residents for complying with the city on that and working with us um and I just wanted to announce really quick just a happy Lunar New Year from

0:02:15all the Asian American Community we had right now if you look around there's lots of red around town but this is a time for a lot of us to to spend time with family celebrating the new year of the rabbit and I just wanted to wish the best for everybody in our community healthful and

0:02:35prosperous year so um and we'll do Council announce oh yes yes that's another yes that's a excuse me so um the next thing I'm going to announce is that we just came out of interviews of council uh commission and um committee members for the four following or five following individuals for Linda

0:03:08julive we want to welcome Linda to the HRC one of the newest members um Ken Lurch is going to be reappointed to the economic development board June schrem also reappointment to the economic development board and Jade Smith appointment to the Civil Service Commission and the economic

0:03:28development board finally I wanted to thank Pamela Wagner Stuart Wagner for her four prior years as our Contra Costa Transportation Authority citizens advisory committee member she is going to serve and we would welcome to serve another four years um representing El Cerrito so thank you

0:03:50and so finally I think that's anyone else just one announcement uh thank you mayor wanted to announce that this coming Saturday February 12th from 10 a.m to 12 noon will be the Publix um not final opportunity to give input into the new recycling center and its design but it's uh sort of the final

0:04:12substantive moment where if you'd like to give some input we understand that this is the time to do it because we're going to move forward with design and getting into deeper phases of that project so we welcome any more comments on the Saturday at City Hall okay

0:04:28um the thing that I would like to announce that I have been attending a number of events related to Redevelopment in the state budget and I was up in Sacramento at the um Senate budget hearing on Thursday and I was also up at the in Sacramento today for the assembly

0:04:52budget hearing however I had to come back before it actually started because things were running so very late up there I left there at about 3 30 and they were still on another item with a whole line of speakers waiting to speak so there's a lot of activities surrounding the

0:05:12budget and a lot of different groups are very concerned about what's going on regarding the budget and are expressing their opinions in Sacramento so thank you I attended Last Friday Night a very interesting thing uh attended the ivy league connection program interviews and

0:05:37a panel I was on was trying to decide finalists for Columbia University and I can just tell you that that if if these people are if these young persons are representative of their generation we really don't have too much to worry about there are some really bright

0:05:59students out there not only bright but they're interested in what's going on they're interested in community they're interested in international Affairs and it's it's a really good program and we we didn't know the high schools until after that we made the decisions but one

0:06:18current El Cerrito student is moving on so look forward to that lives in El Cerrito and and as a sophomore there the other thing is I guess this falls under the uh the heading that former council member Leticia Moore would always call there's El Cerrito is always

0:06:41somewhere and um if you haven't heard although I guess a lot of us have by now Amy Chua was a 1980s graduate of El Cerrito High School she moved on and just did a few things like became a professor at Law at Yale but she also just took uh the country by storm I guess is the only

0:07:09way to put it she she wrote The Battle Hymn of the tiger mother she's an El Cerrito High grad and she's been getting clobbered unfairly I think in the in the Press if you've noticed or at least the New York Times and then throughout she and I've seen her on a couple of

0:07:28talk shows she's very articulate she's very uh engaging and always has a smile on her face even when they're talking about her getting slammed for this book but she made a point and I think it's good to Rally uh rally the troops around her a good El Cerrito High Alum and El

0:07:48Cerrito resident that her book is really not it's not a parent manual on how to raise your children and that's what she's been getting slammed for but in her own words she said it's a memoir of um how she raised her young children and she used a method very similar to the

0:08:07one that she grew up here in here in El Cerrito and it's a trials and tribulations on how that all worked out and it it takes place with her with her her children being young however the children are now 18 and 15 and apparently doing very well and are not the worst for wear of

0:08:29whatever method her mother you their their mother used on her so I just wanted to say hey it's it's time to Rally around if anybody starts talking to you about the book let them know that it is an apparent manual and to read the book themselves and and make up their

0:08:43own mind but I thought a Yale professor and a now an internationally known author is pretty good for El Cerrito High thank you thanks for sharing absolutely I actually I didn't have a tiger mother I had a tiger father asked him to write a book about that but any any other announcements from the

0:09:06council so um from the staff any announcements try this again uh mayor members of the council as council member Abelson already mentioned um with her trips up to Sacramento um staff is monitoring the state budget very closely and while the focus the primary focus has been on the impacts on

0:09:29Redevelopment as as again as I think we've gotten very used to the state looking to local government to solve its ongoing budget problems and no matter how much we seem to chip in it seems to get worse every year but having said that um we'll we have an item later on the

0:09:44agenda about the Redevelopment agency but we thought it was appropriate for the police and fire chief to take a couple minutes to talk about how the state budget impacts Public Safety so if we can foreign members of the council I'm Lance Maples I'm your fire chief as uh Mrs Abelson

0:10:08has discussed and Mr Hannon has discussed uh the state uh budget and the realignment back to local government at this point is still a moving Target as the alignment relates directly to the fire service and EMS Services there's some extensive discussions going on at

0:10:22the Cal Fire level about the SRA areas which are defined as state response areas those areas currently fall under the jurisdiction of Cal Fire there's discussions that some of those areas will be adjusted and the boundaries will be adjusted and be pushed back towards

0:10:37local government that is some extremely bad news for some agencies as it applies to El Cerrito we don't have any boundaries that fall into the SRA areas but the long term that doesn't mean that the Department of Forestry won't look at setting different boundaries at this

0:10:55point we're not faced with any adverse impact on that one item that you hear a lot about in the news but we'll will continue to monitor it the second item that is of a little more concerned and it sounds like it's pretty much a done deal is the realignment has talked about

0:11:10uh you know different ways that Cal Fire can adjust their Staffing models and and pretty much how they put their services on the street one of the things Cal Fire has done for probably about 10 years is during Fire season they take all their engines and they change the Staffing

0:11:25model from three individuals to four it looks like that that is going to take effect uh immediately this fire season and all of Cal Fire through the state will be 3-0 Staffing the adverse impact on local government with that is a strike team is made up of five engines

0:11:43and in the past they've had four persons on each engine so each Strike Team the the Staffing level will be shortened by five people that being said what that means is they'll call more Mutual Aid and they'll be a higher need for resources to get Personnel on the fire

0:11:56ground to fight the fires when we talk with Cal Fire uh they're they're looking at some deployment models and some move-up models for Peak fire season to move their resources around in this uh the state um I think all of that has led to yet to be determined um there's a few other items uh overhead

0:12:15positioning some things like that we stay in Contra Costa County the Chiefs Association stays in close contact with the Santa Clara Ranger unit which is our Ranger unit I was on the phone yesterday with Chief Jones and she uh advised at this point it's kind of too early to

0:12:30tell she said you could call me every day you could call me in the morning you could call me afternoon I'm gonna have a different story for you where I really think Cal Fire is going to end up and everything but as we do with all the divisions and all the areas of budget in

0:12:42the city and how it relates to the state will continue to follow that we'll continue to update I'd be happy to answer any questions yeah uh Chief Maples thanks for the presentation and an update I know it's a moving Target do you happen to know uh what the cut is proposed to Cal Fire in

0:13:00either dollar or percentage terms they're looking at approximately 250 million um and there's a couple different ways they can do that they can even configure it where some of it is Staffing and some of it is turning it back over and reallocating a portion of that back

0:13:15um when you look at the Laos report it has all the ideas of what to do and when it comes to funding that hasn't been considered at this time to how they'll fund back into local government uh it's it's one of those things that's the question we asked every time we talk to

0:13:26the Chiefs and the assistant Chiefs at Cal Fire and they have no idea either so I I want to think by the end of next week we'll have more facts on how the how the budget and the realignment will affect Cal Fire which openly uh affects us here in the city at this point I'll

0:13:41turn it over to Chief Moyer and she has an update on the law enforcement side okay good evening Mr Hannon mayor Chang honorable council members and our community members I am Sylvia Moyer your police chief tonight I will provide you with a briefing on some assumptions made

0:14:00based on the governor's proposed budget and potential impacts to local law enforcement agencies as a result of these budget changes the short and very oversimplified synopsis of assumptions is that our primary concerns are the realignment of the California Department

0:14:17of Corrections and Rehabilitation cdcr and the concern over the sunset of vehicle license fees vlf so the two main points in the cdcr elimination and realignment are the shifting of parole responsibilities to local probation departments and shift of low-level adult offenders back to county

0:14:38jails from prisons so the details of this alignment relative to local law enforcement concerns are these one low-level adult offenders the governor's budget proposes that offenders convicted of non-violent non-serious non-sex offenses would be the responsibility of local government

0:15:00in other words offenders would serve their sentences at the county jail level and their parole supervision would also be the responsibility of local government parole violators would not be sent back to State Prison but could serve any violation time at the local level

0:15:18I and my law enforcement colleagues have a number of concerns about the proposal first there are many offenses that are classified in law as being non-serious non-violent non-sex offenses that are in fact serious offenses for example solicitation to commit murder

0:15:39human trafficking identity theft and many drug trafficking offenses are all classified as non-serious non-violent non-sex offenses Cal Chiefs has already voiced objective objections to the inclusion of these types of offenses with cdcr and we are actively negotiating for elimination of

0:16:00these and similar types of offenses into the classification I mentioned second there are serious issues of local government capacity to absorb the influx of offenders the inevitable result of a wholesale transfer of these offenders to County Jail custody will result in the

0:16:19release of other inmates from County jails resulting in an increase of offenders in our communities third probation and parole have very different functions and we have very real questions as to whether probation can take on parole responsibilities most counties including ours are discussing

0:16:41the potential need for local jurisdictions to assign police officers currently assigned in our community to task force type units in order to monitor offenders in conjunction with probation officers should this demand occur the El Cerrito police department will have to reconfigure our current

0:17:02Staffing and deployment model fourth the conversation that the Money Follows the offender is designed to have the money paid to the agencies where the offenders are producing need this need fluctuates in concern lives in the actual dispersal of the funds commensurate with the need the offender

0:17:23produces what does this mean to our city well well we have a small number of Parolees whose addresses of record are in our city a five-year study revealed that we made 204 arrests for parole violations only seven percent of those arrests were of Parolees who reside in El Cerrito

0:17:47with 58 from our adjoining cities and the remaining from other jurisdictions that is a significant concern to the El Cerrito police department and the level of service that we provide to our community the second big issue is vlf funding the vehicle license fee funding

0:18:08cops is funded and currently funding four cops and booking fee remediation is funded through vlf it is specifically earmarked for local public safety that funding is due to expire on June 30 2011. the administration's budget provides the issue of extending that funding shall be

0:18:26placed on the June 2011 ballot in a special election that election provides no time for us to budget based on the extension or elimination of vlf funding which may result in a budget budget shortfall so in closing I assure you that we are remaining proactive we are listening and

0:18:45we are planning for a variety of possibilities there are many assumptions out there and as previously referenced it is a moving Target and this concludes my informational item presentation I just had uh are you picking up how long the state is going to be funding

0:19:07the so-called realignment to local government issues how long they will fund it yes the things I've read said to two what the end of 2014 or whatever it's right around there so what happens after 2014 and I don't know if you've heard anything any updates along those lines

0:19:33I've heard a bunch of assumptions none that I'm prepared to present thank you for the presentation not sure if you know this now but maybe you can come back later if something comes up are there any proposals on the part of local police Chiefs like yourself that may be provided to the

0:19:53state to help them determine a way to come up with the with these sorts of cuts that causes the least amount of pain to their sister or brother organizations like El Cerrito Police Department I can assure you that the California Chiefs of Police Association is very

0:20:10active in providing proposals to the state and the specific effects to local government also cpoa the California Peace Officers Association is at the table as well so there's there are Statewide agencies representing the interests of local government so the answer is yes

0:20:34so what I think I hear you saying is first of all and it corresponds I must say to what I've been hearing when I go to Sacramento um that we don't really know what's you know what's going to happen and if it does happen what the impact will be on our city so I guess what I'm wondering about if you

0:20:58have any uh are you sort of in your mind at any level creating plan scenario B scenario a and so forth like we did in the budget process we use for this year uh to cover the different possibilities or even are you even able to get enough information where you can put it

0:21:21into that format if you understand my question well it's a broad question and I can assure you that the Command Staff of the El Cerrito Police Department is planning for a lot of assumptions that are being made it is difficult to plan in terms of the actual budget associated with the demand

0:21:41and the service change but we remain flexible in the way we assign our personnel and we are at the table we are listening and we are providing input at every level where appropriate so I guess the easy way to respond to your question is to say yes [Laughter] thank you certainly

0:22:06just one more comment then I think what you're saying tonight is safe to assume that if there's any change we're looking at probably a reshuffling of priorities service priorities not administrative priorities or anything along those lines but real service priorities that

0:22:28you will have to make suggestions and recommendations on for the running of the department correct yes our our the mission of the El Cerrito Police Department is we are committed to service and safety and enhancing the public trust through professionalism and Leadership with that mission in mind it

0:22:49is imperative that we are progressive it is imperative that we listen to the community it is imperative that we forecast and we plan ahead and you are absolutely accurate that we would have to re-examine what service looks like in our community as a result of these

0:23:04changes okay is uh is King's position okay though thank you thank you so much Chief Moyer I don't have any other questions but other than to let the public know that given the climate of where the state budget crisis is headed in the impact on our community um it just makes our we've scheduled the

0:23:34March 5th essentially goal setting Mission development session for the council from nine to noon and I invite anyone to come listen in because we we are essentially have to get to the point where we we will have to be prepared to make tough decisions and to get

0:23:51everybody's feedback on that will be really helpful so March 5th Saturday 9 to noon um so with that I will ask that we open oral Communications from the public yes mayor we have one speaker Rosemary lubal good evening Council and fellow citizens staff um some of you may have noticed we

0:24:25haven't been around for a while we were in Canada on sabbatical for about 14 months and came back just before Christmas and we noticed some very pleasant improvements in the city a lot more trees the streets fixed up seems like you either have more people doing

0:24:42environmental things or it's being talked about more anyway it looks it looks good so the reason that I'm here is I live two blocks from the Del nortibot station and one of the reasons that we moved to El Cerrito was that we were concerned about the environmental impacts of

0:25:00living by such a huge parking lot which gets more than two thousand cars a day and of course some of them come in and out but there were 18 years ago there were 112 more trees than there are now and over the years the trees were removed and for good reasons they do get

0:25:20old and so on and so on but there wasn't any tree replacement and I contacted Bart several times and talked to the city and was always told the city can't do anything because of Bart and Bart said well they can't do anything because they don't have money their priorities

0:25:35are elsewhere so it was it was moved well since Christmas everybody's aware of the rapidities which all the trees are being removed on the perimeter around bot and I haven't seen anything in any of the newspapers or public announcements about this the only notice I've seen

0:25:55about from Neighbors coming and talking to me has been notices in the the electronic newspaper the patch which is new to El Cerrito since we left so what I I'm not disputing the fact that the trees have to be removed but what I'm concerned about is and surprised about is I haven't seen any

0:26:15notice of public meetings to deal with this and yet many of us neighbors who live around Del Norte are sort of like does the city know anything about this I mean I know of course you know but I think about the amount of Bart elsewhere citizen interface that was around the greenway and the replay

0:26:36repair of the greenway I I don't know if any of this is going on there was one letter in the patch which was obviously a mistake saying bot was going to plant redwood trees which of course ludicrous and now there was a letter in the patch saying they wouldn't have found two kinds of trees which are

0:26:54on the city's approved list but that's not really a plan and perhaps I've missed something with being gone but I was hoping to be some sort of Citizen meetings where people could talk about what they like and what they don't like and what's possible and there might be

0:27:08some other things that could be done around the perimeter of Bot if you look at Del Norte now it's pretty Grim to say cause and eggs of course so could can I ask a question that could be answered here or not well typically public comment is for the purpose of of hearing one way when we

0:27:27can't talk about items that aren't on the agenda but I think um maybe can I just impart a piece of information that I know I know that previously there were were there were meetings that I I and the reason I know is because I attended it and it was in this room with Bart

0:27:49on uh the on the Del Norte uh trees and I believe from what I'm remembering there was supposed to be a two-for-one replacement of trees or anything they took out they would put in two new ones and I believe that if you're interested in more information the proper agency to contact is Bart and

0:28:13um I have a phone number I believe that I can give you after the meeting or it's somehow through staff if you like of that person well I I could try but I was hoping that I was going to hear that the city will have a meeting with Bach and the citizens like it did about the

0:28:35repairs to the structure I thought you were talking about trees I'm sorry yeah I'm talking about I mean when we were talking about fixing the structure of Bot that's another that's no no so I'm sorry um Rosemary um Karen is going to get you the information you need about the meeting

0:28:54okay good because citizens should be talking about this and um and I'm sorry this is not a public comment is one way and so I'm sorry we'll have to ask you to um maybe please um speak with Karen to get your information and we should move on since it's your three minutes are up so well

0:29:13thank you for your for your concern that I would I would like to get the notice of that a meeting that you the one you mentioned correct and please uh speak with uh with Karen Pincus off to the side and she'll get you the information thank you the past meeting thanks

0:29:33okay so we can move on to presentations um this evening we have a presentation from the El Cerrito tennis Improvement Association [Music] um from Jan Bridges Earl Carr and Denise Tom we are one tonight okay um mayor Chang council members Mr Hannon um City staff

0:30:01um I'm here to bring you a good cheer in a check um the El Cerrito tennis Improvement Association was funded and founded in 1994 with the intent purpose to grow tennis in El Cerrito we were raising funds for the betterment of tennis not only facilities but also

0:30:21for programs one of our main goals was to build the third court at the Arlington Park once the once we knew I'm sorry once we knew I was trying to get money out of her purse too once we knew that the El Cerrito High School tennis courts were going to be removed with all the remodel that took

0:30:42place there and we needed the third Court primarily for tennis matches which is a United States tennis Association criteria you must have three courts our group was founded by a teaching pro that's been associated with El Cerrito for many years and it's a tennis

0:31:00professional Alvin Homme also an El Cerrito High School graduate um we did achieve our goal of resurfacing some Courts Building the third court at the Arlington and we have a check from the El Cerrito tennis Improvement Association for over twenty five thousand dollars to be

0:31:21deposited uh as a deferred revenue for the purpose of tennis functions and and that could be either programs or facility um the administrator of the ectia was a man named Peter Roo who's um could not be here tonight and he and along with Alvin um worked very hard and we raised uh

0:31:46almost a hundred and sixty thousand dollars in our Heyday to to provide the building of the third Court we've also met with Mary Dodge and Mr Bradshaw and as I said before this will be held in a deferred revenue account and there will be a group of three members from our tennis community that

0:32:11will oversee the decision making that will take place for the use of this money and it will be for tennis purposes only so I'm sorry we won't be able to do anything with the firefighters and the police tonight without money but I do have the check here I don't know if I

0:32:28should give that to you madam mayor to Mr Hannon to Mary Dodge what's appropriate um okay the mayor have to report this [Applause] well mind the mirror's coming up here maybe I'd like to thank the tennis Association for their money thanks former council member of bridges haven't

0:33:20forgot about us that's good but no it also it also continues what we've talked about the last several years is about identifying dedicated funding to put forward towards capital projects and in some cases programming but this helps out that we have dedicated funding going to maintain

0:33:46are our facilities and that when the time comes it lessens the blow on the General on the general fund which as you know is running a little thin um so this is great thank you very much really appreciate it I would also with council member Jones for the continuing work because I know

0:34:12this is not the first time that you've pitched in and been supportive of our tennis courts and made them as nice a place to be as they currently are and it's really appreciate we I certainly appreciate um what you're doing for El Cerrito so thank you very much and to the members

0:34:34of the club I just also add that I love that tennis is an all-ages Sport and I've often seen people of all Stripes shapes and sizes on this court so I appreciate your support of that Recreation for all ages is so important in our community and second all of that thank you so much

0:34:49for for doing your part as the community I think that's what makes El Cerrito so special is that the community really pulls it together and had you know comes to the table with you know great Partnerships like this so thank you so next Item B on our presentation

0:35:10agenda is National Night Out award presentation by El Cerrito crime prevention committee good evening Madam mayor members of the council Mr Hannan um unfortunately the chair of the crime prevention committee and a few of the other members couldn't make it tonight due to some other

0:35:40commitments so um I'm uh filling in tonight um uh on August 3rd of uh 2010 the city put on National Night Out so a huge collaborative effort between uh the crime prevention committee the city staff the police department the fire department and then the both the

0:36:05business and uh residential community in the city it was a huge success this year as evidenced by the award with me up here tonight I have John Yamamoto Catherine Krueger and Gene go all members of the crime drench committee and they all put in a great deal of work and effort into getting

0:36:27National Night Out going with me and then I think I saw Suzanne erla who's over here who also did a great deal of work I think Suzanne is Mister calling I think she would be a great Incident Commander because of her elaborate and very well thought out and thorough planning of

0:36:43National Night Out so I mean it could not have been such a great success without her National Night Out is so important to us at the police department because it really brings gives kind of an excuse for Neighbors to get together hang out talk get to know each other

0:37:00maybe a little bit better at the same time for staff from the city from the fire department the police department and members of the crime prevention committee to visit these neighborhoods and talk with them about crime and other matters that are important to them so it

0:37:13kind of brings the community tighter it's a great event this year we had 28 block parties throughout out the city and while there's no official tally there's approximately 1500 people that attended these 28 block parties so I guess National Night Out is put on by the

0:37:31National Association of town watch who sort of ranks the presentations and all this stuff so this year else would have moved up to 18th spot but I I want to say it's up from 24 but I think it's hard to put a ranking on how important National Night Out is to the city so um I'm more or less pleased

0:37:50and honored and really appreciative of having the opportunity to present this to the city of El Cerrito tonight you can I'll just give it to her whatever you want go ahead everybody was there okay thank you okay thank you that is the right slope I think so thank you very much

0:39:49comments I just want to say that it's it's you guys are as the crime prevention committee truly doing your job to prevent crime by bringing neighbors together I think the more that we rely on each other as eyes um it's all part of the puzzle and so I deeply appreciate all the effort and I

0:40:07just had a quick question actually if um if you guys are communicating these Awards to our real estate agents and if they're building that into she says yes that's great it's a huge asset thank you oh that's good I had the pleasure of being liaison to that committee for a long time well a long

0:40:30time in in Council terms uh three or four three years I think and I really enjoyed it we've have people there in fact they're here tonight that have been on that committee 20 25 years it's amazing they've seen they've seen a lot of uh changes but it is one of the most

0:40:46active uh committees that we have they're at Fourth of July they do neighborhood watch programs and uh security assessments and things like that so uh I'd like to thank you this is just once again uh a great honor and I guess you're already planned in for next year

0:41:06so thank you very much or this year actually August 2nd so thank you very much [Applause] presentation tonight from recycle more presentation by Chris lahen executive director of recycle more which is the West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority well I can either be here or

0:41:37there where the presentation is you also should have copies of the slides too in your yes packets whatever you're comfortable with okay yeah thank you for the opportunity to present to you this evening there's a lot of information here to do but we're basically sort of

0:41:57outlining what we who recycle more is and what we're doing we're starting the strategic planning process on figuring out what we're going to do Post 2013 when a lot of our processing of recyclables and landfill agreements and with the private companies that have

0:42:15those agreements with us the yeah sorry about that it's forward yeah I'll just sit down in front here got it okay thank you um what I'm gonna do tonight is tell you a little bit about us um director Jones is on our committee as one of the directors we're comprised of

0:42:52the five cities in West Contra Costa County and have three members from the city of Richmond and one member from each of the other four cities uh basically who recycle more is our long name is the West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority and what we do

0:43:11next topic is I'll give you a overview of the solid waste system which starts with collection all the way to processing and landfill disposal talk a little bit about current contracts we have you might know them as franchise agreements this is sort of the there's a franchise agreement that the

0:43:27city has with East Bay Sanitary Service and then the other franchise agreement is with after the materials collected which is basically with our agency strategic planning steps that we've have outlined and we've started to actually meet with City staff and some of the

0:43:42city managers to come up with objectives and also a conclusion so I told you a little bit about recycle more we were formed in 1991 and there were two major reasons why we were formed was primarily because of 8939 passed from 1989 that was the California state law fifty percent

0:44:04diversion from landfills and then also the West County landfill in North Richmond was predicted to close and it did not close technically until 2006 and with that closing we would eventually have to have a place to transfer the garbage and take it to landfills located

0:44:22outside of the area we manage the processing and disposal of landfill through 2013 the contracts were for 20 years which started in you could say January 1st of 1994.

0:44:38and then member cities are all the five and the county is an ex-officio officer has a seat on our board but does not have voting Authority and then um all member agencies administered their own franchise agreements as I mentioned before in El Cerrito and then in the other service

0:44:56areas that's provided by Richmond Sanitary Service the California law AB 939 you've probably heard about several times what we do is we Implement programs such as household hazardous waste recycling um and a school education program that we do is we basically do presentations in

0:45:18school from Worm Composting to paper making and then we do the four r's prior to the schools going on a trip of the transfer station and the closed landfill and the recycling center uh what we do too is we have a household hazardous waste program there's a permanent facility in North Richmond and

0:45:35then a mobile collection program for disabled and elderly people a little bit of background of what the waste management system is uh like I said there's collection companies East Bay sanitary and Richmond Sanitary Service sorry the volume keeps um a franchise collection of recyclables by

0:46:01Richmond Sanitary Service and then the city of El Cerrito actually picks up their own recyclables the current processing is basically covered by what we call the irf it stands for the integrated resource recovery facility and that facility basically processes all the recyclables

0:46:19green waste and food scraps are picked up and then composted at the West County landfill up on the closed part of the landfill they created a plateau and put the material and windrows up there the Golden Bear Transfer Station is where the solid waste goes where it's

0:46:35transferred then to landfills primarily Keller Canyon Landfill near Pittsburgh and then there's a household hazardous waste facility and mobile collection program a little bit about uh each member agency has retained their responsibility for the franchise agreements with the

0:46:53collection haulers El Cerritos franchise agreement expires probably in somewhere 2017 and most of the other agreements expire in 2025 I'll tell you a little bit about the Irv service agreement it was approved in 1994 because the landfill was soon to close but actually predictions were falsely

0:47:19wrong and in 2006 the West County Landfill closed so perhaps we actually received lower disposal rates at a long period of time than we anticipated by the landfill closing probably in the mid 90s the Earth rates are regulated by a facility so every year we have a budget

0:47:40process which takes about two months we review the private companies Services their fees for service a lot of them are set to index by CPI every year and then our rates are regulated by recycling more and we use a portion of our recycling revenues that are generated to actually help subsidize

0:48:00some of the rates and another thing is the facilities owned by West County resource recovery it's a Republic Services uh family of companies that were sold in the early 2000s by the partnership that operated Richmond Sanitary Service Solano County Landfill and Solano Garbage Company

0:48:23the Earth was designed to be a full service facility what I mean by full service facility it was going to be a transfer station for garbage what eventually became gold and Bear Transfer Station and a landfill the project was actually scaled back to just a transfer station because costs

0:48:39were very substantial in the early 1990s when it was being built uh Pawn completion it was apparent that we wouldn't need the facility for several years for transferring materials so they closed down we closed down the interim recycling center in North Richmond and then located recycling

0:48:57equipment inside the facility and then after 2014 West County resource recovery can use the facility for whatever intended purpose they desire and I anticipate they'll still be using it as a recycling center and household hazards waste facility tell you a little bit about the

0:49:18financing and some of the economics behind the facility about 20 million dollars plus were sold in bond payments and interest over 20 years to finance the building of the facility the ratepayers reimburse West County resource recovery an annual percentage of about seven percent for original

0:49:39return on Equity that was around 11 million dollars and then the rate payers compensate for operation of the facility which would be operators margin return on working capital and 35 percent of the share of the recycling revenues was about 2.7 million dollars last year

0:49:57so now I'm going to talk a little bit about our strategic planning process because we have these agreements that are expiring so we want to figure out what alternatives are out there if there are any alternatives or decide what would be beneficial and Equitable to all

0:50:13the member agencies involved just because you might be getting something that's cheap and expensive is it fair that we go by with that type of service available so step one we've defined our requirements and determine the role of the authority the role of the authority

0:50:28primarily as we act as the ab 939 compliance for member agencies and we've also come up with outlines by having two meetings with City staff on what we want to do going forward and evaluate types of things like possibly like anaerobic digestion which East Bay mud does and they generate electricity

0:50:49from the generation of methane is one example of an alternative the next one is understand our position the position would be sort of Financial and also understand our position going forward that so far we're planning on the member agency staying together as an authority

0:51:08and possibly Contracting Services at together or they may have an option to do it solely on their own identify what I mean by Alternatives is currently we've had a 20-year agreement and my experience in the background prior to me taking the position your city manager was in my position about 10

0:51:29years ago so Alternatives I've seen over the last years is that perhaps have an opportunity to use other recycling facilities in the area but we do have to get the material from West County to Oakland let's say or San Francisco if it needs to go there we would actually evaluate the

0:51:49Alternatives is anaerobic digestion or even possibly gasification of material economical feasible and sustainable for us and at that point we'll actually do a presentation to our board and make recommendations to them how we should actually acquire new Services post 2013.

0:52:11so I'd like to our timeline is actually very ambitious by the end of the year we actually want to decide what we're going to do if we're going to sort of just stay with the current service providers we have or have an option to mix and match some of the services going forward

0:52:27and in respect for your time I'll actually take questions for you and then I could actually provide you with a written response if I can't easily provide information at that time so thank you very much well thanks Chris I appreciate it um Chris is here primarily because the

0:52:46board has asked his staff to go around and and review what's coming up which is the uh the possible continuation of the agency in 2014 and be interesting to see what when they put everything together uh what are some of the things and what the role is going to be

0:53:12coming up so thank you very much for uh for coming tonight and it'll be kind of interesting I want to CR one of the in my opinion uh the interesting aspects of of recycle more in this this whole process is it's it doesn't stand still there's there's always something coming up

0:53:35um there's always some different way of looking at it there's always delays and projects that we got to figure out what's going on and certifications it's highly regulated the industry is highly regulated and getting certifications sometimes proves to be a problem so we

0:53:52deal with that's part of Chris's uh job is to deal with those things and keep us on track so thank you very much thanks for the presentation just a couple of questions um is are you aware of any state activities to advance the 50 diversion rate to increase that

0:54:13or do you happen to know what the diversion rate is today for the member cities member agencies they don't do it on a percentage anymore they have a Target and we're at 5.4 pounds per person it's a per capita and we're actually at three point something now so we're well below the target uh the

0:54:33landfill Target yeah and the San the 75 has actually been talked about out there but I don't see anything possibly in the next year or so because a lot of what the waste board or they're called Cal recycle Now is working with the air resources board on addressing mandatory

0:54:51commercial recycling how much if you divert some of the material how does it contribute to reduction in greenhouse gases okay and is it correct then that no methane is captured at this point but that was you mentioned that is being discussed as one potential sort of role

0:55:09or goal that would be set for example if you use anaerobic digestion where you take sewage sludge and probably leftover organics food scraps and generate electricity because it's anything anaerobic is creates methane and then that can be used but the landfill actually in West County has

0:55:29three to four uh gas power turbines that generate electricity from any of the methane that they capture from the landfill so okay so it does occur now and just kind of a I don't know if you'll know the answer to this but what happens to the hazard is household waste

0:55:44a lot of the household hazards waste there's several options like Sharps have to be autoclaved or I can tell you Pharmaceuticals the only acceptable disposal is incineration it typically happens in Texas or New Mexico the other material typically is Blended together if it's oil-based and typically

0:56:06used as a fuel product and some material actually goes down to Kettleman Hills landfill in the Central Valley which you've probably read a few articles about in the newspaper and that facility is operated by Waste Management it's the only a class one landfill in

0:56:22the state of California and class one means you can put almost anything in it thank you so you refer to a Target and where we've stood in relationship to the Target currently I was just wondering if you had a an educational component that you might address I don't

0:56:40see it right here um that you work on as part of your overall program yeah part of it is probably we have about one and a half staff members that are fully allocated to our school education program and we also actually produce brochures that we periodically distribute recently we provided grant

0:57:01funding for the cities that actually implemented food scraps and those cities were San Pablo El Cerrito and Richmond and they used actually some of the money to generate brochures and information related to that pro project thank you you're welcome um I just wanted to clarify thanks for

0:57:22your presentation um the you mentioned the is it the the District's overall or the state overall 5.4 pounds per person is that per day or that's us yes it's per day per day that's Statewide average no that is just our area Statewide I'd have to they they do publish a Statewide diversion rate

0:57:43which the last time it was recorded was 52 percent and I don't know if they've come out with a Statewide per capita goal and that we are currently three no we're currently at three point something so we're actually probably about a pound and a half to two pounds below the

0:58:01target okay well that's great um and surprising though lots of Chris that's West County Wide right that's West county-wide yes and that includes all waste overall not that's or just residential it's it's all except for the unincorporated pockets of the county which would be like Crockett and Rodeo

0:58:23because the county administers their compliance to the ab-939 for those like else Sobrante so when you use those numbers does that mean that we're doing better than the Target or worse than yeah if we're below the target which is 5.4 or 5.2 we're actually below it and a lot of the being

0:58:43below the target I'm asking a different question so I don't know if it's good to be below the Target or if it's better to be above above the target number is that the diversion yes it's better to be below it's better to be below so so we if we're diverting less you know

0:59:05it's it means that we are producing we are um so it means that that's our that's our garbage rate per person yes in essence because I'm a little bit confused about the word diversion yeah it's on a per capita disposal accounting system as opposed to a diversion accounting system which they

0:59:29used to do but you couldn't always account for all of the diversion that was happening you'd have a hundred places so whatever didn't make it to the landfill your assumption is it's being diverted you're welcome yes can I so just to confirm that's incredible so you're saying that we send

0:59:51three pounds per person per day to the landfill so a thousand pounds a year per person is that right that's amazing yeah okay well you said three pounds I thought that was not every day so yeah it's it's per day per person pounds per day per person okay thanks for

1:00:10clarifying that thank you um I think no other questions for us and if we do we can we know where to look I guess I have one other question I'm sorry um I just find garbage fascinating um the um so when you say we're diverting three plus pounds per person does that

1:00:31incl is that just from our homes or is that all does that include businesses that includes everybody industrial business and residential so that's basically everything in in from West County and we're below yes and that's good thank you okay thank you very much Chris thanks

1:00:52for for presenting to us on to um item number five adoption of the consent calendar item is there any solution to approve I'll move adoption of the consent calendar I'll second that motion all those in favor um motion carries unanimously um and as we mentioned item number six

1:01:24is it was not um was canceled due to compliance and so we are now on to policy matters um The Joint City Council Redevelopment agency item and so this is so I'm not sure Janet if you so the um this is for the public improvements and cooperation agreement between the city of El Cerrito

1:01:48and the El Cerrito Redevelopment agency and opposition to the abolition of Redevelopment agencies in California so so we'll start with the staff report thank you thank you mayor Chang and council members I'm Redevelopment manager Lori Trevino for consideration this evening for your

1:02:10consideration this evening is a public improvements and cooperation agreement between the city of El Cerrito and the El Cerrito Redevelopment agency as you know the proposed state budget if enacted would result in the abolition of Redevelopment agencies throughout

1:02:24California on July 1st Redevelopment agencies would only be allowed to receive tax increment to pay off its existing contractual obligations and all the remaining revenues would go to the state to help balance the state budget agencies throughout California are

1:02:41trying to take actions that would obligate their revenues through this kind of agreement that you're will be considering through this agreement the city would be implementing Redevelopment projects and programs that the agency would then pay for and these projects

1:02:55and programs would be a contract contractual obligation for the agency that's eligible for payment with tax increment Revenue I thought it would be helpful to give you a little background on the Redevelopment agency I don't know a lot if a lot of people know it's history

1:03:09it was formed the agency was formed the project area and the was established and the Redevelopment plan was approved in 1977 and the plan has been amended numerous times including in 1980 when land at the top of Fairmont at the corner of Colusa and Carmel was added

1:03:27there's a vacant piece of property there so the project area there's one project area that's non-contiguous um the plan went through a major amendment in 1994 and with some minor amendments that is the document under which the agency operates today the agency has

1:03:45passed through agreements that are negotiated with the school district the county the parks district and the Community College District and then all of the other taxing agencies that serve this area receive another past a different kind of a pass-through agreement that's established under

1:04:00statute um some Aid some dates that are important for you to know about the agency is allowed to take undertake project activities through 2020 and to receive tax increment through 2025.

1:04:14the agency has imminent domain authority over non-residential properties throughout the project area and also on Residential Properties on the Eastern triangle and that power expires in 2018.

1:04:26the agency has been involved in many projects since 1977 in varying degrees anywhere from issuing bonds or doing public improvements or assembling and clearing land um some of them people might be surprised by Del Norte Plaza shopping center the nation's office building Bank

1:04:45of the West Plaza the Civic Apartments next door Civic Plaza Apartments Cerrito Galleria Shopping Center at Stockton Potrero building Del Norte Place complex the Target store Home Depot and the relocation of the El Cerrito Honda dealership the agency has been involved in in

1:05:07producing 188 affordable housing units those projects for El Cerrito Royale the Hazel Shirley Manor Del Norte place the Idaho apartments and then also several units at The Village at Town Center more recently the agency is focused on public improvements to benefit the whole

1:05:23project area most significantly the streetscape improvements that are just being completed on San Pablo Avenue there were also previous phases of signage and Gateway Science and banner programs most of that was funded through a bond issuance that we did in 2004

1:05:39other streetscape improvements happened on Fairmont Avenue avenue on the upper and lower sections the agency funded a portion of the Civic Plaza when the city hall was completed agency participated in the Restorations of both Baxter Creek and Cerrito Creek um obviously there was a significant

1:05:59effort put into the renovation of the Cerrito theater and that's ongoing with the efforts to revitalize that whole block that effort has taken the form of business assistance and promotion and economic development website and the shop El Cerrito website um the agency has also assisted Property

1:06:16Owners with evaluation of their building for seismic safety installation of video surveillance equipment funding the specific plan the agency has acquired properties in the Del Norte area and initiated a TOD strategy there and of course you know that we've acquired the

1:06:32tradeway property for a housing project and assisted rcd in their project land acquisition so having completed all those various projects the agency has contractual debt obligations of about 25 million dollars in the annual payments on those debts are about two million

1:06:49dollars annually after our pass-through payment center Debt Service the agency gets about two million dollars that are not for long-term obligations contractual obligations and those are the funds that the state would be taking away and that this item is intended to

1:07:05try to protect um So based on our current estimates the agency would have about 95 million dollars left between now and 2025 that it could collect and that's the um this agreement is intended to um protect those revenues to complete projects and programs that are in the

1:07:25agency's implementation plan ation plan talks about four different areas of projects Redevelopment of private properties Economic Development efforts like business Recruitment and Retention programs public improvements that benefit the project area and then affordable housing projects and programs

1:07:45so the cooperation agreement that you're considering includes a list of projects and programs that the city could Implement on behalf of the agency that fall within that plan some of the most significant ones are infill development that's planned around the BART stations

1:08:01Moser Lane shopping center Master development the housing units for the tradeway site and Ohlone Gardens revitalization of the theater Block commercial rehab loans for small businesses opportunity sites that we have and to implement along San Pablo Avenue along with the city of Richmond

1:08:20and perhaps most of concern is how we would be able to redevelop properties that we already own um and in the hope that they won't remain blighted and have wasted the agency's investment so we're estimating that there the net loss to the to the city would be about a

1:08:39million and a half dollars a year and the elimination of these projects that are currently underway um and we're hoping that this agreement will allow the agency to obligate those funds of course there's no guarantee that the state couldn't pass legislation that can

1:08:54circums that could circumvent these kinds of agreements but we're still recommending it's adoption as a means to protect some of our revenues and allow us to try to continue with our implementation plans the um amen the agreement can be amended and rescinded and in fact we will bring it back at the

1:09:12next council meeting to amend to add publicly owned buildings that are in the agency's implementation plan because we need to do a public hearing to make that Amendment so finally also for your consideration this evening isn't a resolution opposing the proposal to abolish Redevelopment

1:09:31agencies in California so I'm happy to answer any questions that you have and also hear our economic development director mitchinsky senior project managers Hildy Mile and Dwayne Dalman and our agency legal counsel Karen Tiedeman thanks for your report and your update

1:09:54on where we stand on all this which anyway um Laura either yourself or the agency Council can answer some of these things but the agreement before us that's what I'm going to ask you about uh does this agreement make the city liable or is the city underwriting the costs of any of

1:10:19these uh Redevelopment projects if this agreement goes into uh the agreement doesn't obligate the city to any of the costs of the projects but I think you had a second the first part of your question was slightly different no I was just wondering if we were do we

1:10:39have does the city have any liability or are we uh obligated to underwrite any of the costs of the projects uh with if we enter into this agreement no thanks um correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is is the Redevelopment agency is a separate legal entity in

1:11:03public corporation and stands on its own correct is that our understanding yes which I think is pretty important in this whole thing but um the agreements between the the Redevelopment agencies and any of the contracts the people we enter into the contracts is the state and I'm sorry but I I can't

1:11:27remember all these documents when we see them but is the state ever mentioned in there that they're a partner or that they're uh somehow part of this whole operation I'm gonna leave that question to Karen okay good evening Karen Tiedeman um no if I understand the question

1:11:51correctly you're asking if the state is really involved in our Redevelopment projects and the answer is no there may be some projects in the past although I can't think of any where you have received some State grant that you pair with your tax increment but that would

1:12:06be the only instance where there would be any state involvement the Redevelopment agency is completely locally controlled okay again I think that's fairly significant in that now the state is claiming that all along they have been the lead Agency on all this stuff I

1:12:25guess or I'm simplifying it but somehow it's their money we're using yeah yeah um then I take it that the state if the current if we're operating under current contracts if for some reason they defaulted or excuse me the Redevelopment agency defaults or gets in trouble the

1:12:46state is not live even though they say they are they're running things they're not liable for any of that in other words we stand on our own yeah that's absolutely correct and also the city is not liable for the agency's defaults it is a separate legal entity and so the

1:13:01state is not backing any of your debts the city is not backing any of your debts okay and I know this is Up For Debate but this last question here is um does the current state law allow the state to take to take over Redevelopment agencies the opinion is no the voters approved

1:13:25prop 22 in November which prohibits the state from directing how tax increment is spent and we prohibits the state from taking that tax increment Redevelopment agencies are State created entity so theoretically the legislature might be able to deal with how agencies are formed and

1:13:46how they function but the power to collect tax increment is actually in the Constitution and that's what prop 22 amended as well so these are all constitutional provisions so how the state would accomplish what they profess they're going to accomplish is still a little bit of a mystery to

1:14:02all of us we're all waiting to see thank you I know I just wanted to confirm that so thank you very much and uh Lori had one last question you know um if you if we could restate um the Redevelopment agency collects tax tax property tax increment and so does the school district and

1:14:33counties and other public agencies on the same property so our agreement El Cerritos uh uh Redevelopment agency's agreement with these other agencies is that we'll pass through nearly all of what they would get if the if the property was not in the Redevelopment

1:14:53area is that well not all but nearly all of that money they're getting already correct well all of the agencies in the taxing air in the project area receive a certain amount that's based on what they received when the project area was formed and then the agency collects all the

1:15:13property tax increment the incremental value Above That Base value and then we have an obligation under statute to pass through a percentage of that and there's a complicated formula for that it works out to be about 25 percent of the tax increment goes back to the taxing

1:15:32agencies okay and elsewhere's case we have because we have four negotiated pass-through agreements in place those are instead of those statutory formulas and so depending on what was negotiated that could be beneficial to the agency or to you know the other the other agency just

1:15:53depends on what was negotiated so when we hear that education might get a lot of money or counties making a lot of money uh if the if the Redevelopment agencies are abolished in the case of El Cerrito I can't speak for anybody else's agency but in the case of el Cerritos agency that's not

1:16:12going to be a whole lot of money is my my take on this whole thing well Karen and I were just talking about this it's it's not clear to us what whether something will replace those pass-through agreements or whether they'll be something whether they'll stand on their own in the in those

1:16:28agencies will get nothing in addition to that it's not really clear um but in um particularly in the case of of the county we have an obligation in our agreement to spend 5.1 million dollars on a County facility between now and the end of the pro of the Redevelopment plan

1:16:49and so that's a little bit of a of a a strange Nuance I think specific to El Cerrito because how do you quantify that contractual obligation through this system that the state is proposing so there's some real complexities here that we haven't figured out how to will hell be dealt

1:17:08with well thank you that gives us a general idea I appreciate that could I just ask a follow-up on that one um thanks for your presentation and all the enumeration of all the projects that was so helpful uh knowing since the beginning of the the project area what's

1:17:23been done people have no idea sometimes yeah but but just I don't know if you'll know the answer to this right now but property a and property B one is in a Redevelopment area one is not in El Cerrito West County School District gets ten dollars say from a property that's

1:17:38not in the project area are you saying that they also would get ten dollars from the pass-through agreements or roughly the same amount of money from a property that's equally valued within the project area that would be um I've only worked in other cities Redevelopment agencies I'm not sure how

1:17:55ours Works mathematically with the formulas but just to clarify and if you don't know the answer right now I can you know we can follow up later to think about it a little bit exactly how the math would work but I'm happy to to do that with you that would be great

1:18:08and one other question in the staff report um maybe you can just remind me I can't quite remember how this works so we're entitled to it says here at least 160 million dollars in property tax increment revenues over the life of the plan and the plan extends until 2025. so

1:18:25does that mean that through 2025 we're able to obligate funds and then beyond 2025 we would collect tax increment to pay for those obligations and does it mean up to 160 million dollars or at least 160 million dollars and beyond that uh first thing um we could obligate

1:18:45funds through 2020 to collect tax increment to pay them through 2025. Okay so we've spent 65 million dollars to date it sounds like it says here and we can spend 160 million dollars yeah and that 160 is is based on a projection um do using a very um small growth assumption

1:19:09so assuming no projects happen and we were just to go forward on a three percent growth okay through the end that's that's what that pers that assumes okay right conservative it's just a such effective at least such a few number of years left in the plan but still such

1:19:24amount of money that you're you're saying is potentially available yeah it's just the compounding right yeah understood thank you um actually been spending a lot of time listening to the state point of view on this so I think I think I'm pretty well versed on this I

1:19:46don't think I have any questions I could maybe add one thing to it that I think is pretty relevant and that would be that when I was at the um Senate budget hearing on this topic last week and they were discussing it the staff State staff were discussing it one

1:20:07of the things that it it appeared to me that they were saying is that they're not really sure of all of the details of what their proposal would be um and that would be something that they would work out later but that the thing that they're proposing to do which is abolish

1:20:28Redevelopment agencies they would perhaps do before they would figure out what they would do about how to deal with it so um I I think I'm stating that accurate I think I'm more or less stating that accurately Lori or would you I think the message was trust us this will be okay

1:20:46[Laughter] you'll get it all back really so this is after we've passed a couple um we the voters of the state have passed a couple of measures prop 1A and then prop 22 this last year saying that we want local control so um I think that's part of the message that

1:21:13I have as a takeaway from all of this um that's rather frightening actually um I I don't have any questions but I also appreciate the enumeration of all of the the work that has gone in um you know despite the 10-year height is for our agency I I appreciate all the

1:21:37the work that staff has done in um yeah and so clearly Redevelopment has served a huge purpose in our community and we we hope to to keep keep it alive um and so with that I guess is anybody ready to to make a motion for the the two items I'll move or for the discussion I wanted to say one

1:22:03thing because I thought we were going to have further discussion but that's okay uh I just wanted to say that the proposed resolution and agreement between the city and the El Cerrito Redevelopment agency um I think has been well thought out and nicely presented and what strikes me

1:22:20though that um it follows all the applicable current law and States as much in a clear reference just to such laws if you'll notice when you go through there's um the law and the sections and things are are cited and what that tells me is there we're basing this

1:22:41agreement on factual legal grounds and positions and the city's position reason and legal justifications are clearly and transparently described in the documents um the governor's proposal doesn't do the same as yet and we just heard that you know you go to hearings and they say

1:23:04well we haven't got all the details but hey it'll be okay well if you really start thinking through this and all these roads blocks that are coming up um or things that you have to get through such as the pass-throughs for instance um I don't know if that's a good way to go

1:23:23so I'm glad that our agreement States our position gives the reasons and has legal justification behind it and the resolution also represents a clear picture of the Redevelopment agencies and the realities of the governor's proposal as as it affects El Cerrito and other

1:23:44Redevelopment agencies and cities in in the state so I certainly uh feel that we should protect our our rightful resources the Redevelopment agency was developed a passed in 1952 by a vote of the people it wasn't a legislative action These funds have been going to

1:24:09Redevelopment agencies since 1952.

1:24:13and we the Redevelopment agencies are not keeping any money of the state away from we are not taking away from them has been has been proposed I will say this and I took offense to it and that's why I wanted to say it is that the governor Governor Brown in his proposal

1:24:36pitted the agencies against education and against the counties when it first came out last week he met with 12 of the biggest agencies in the state and basically also told them that social services will also significantly suffer if this Redevelopment money does not

1:25:00come back to the state so now they have now he's pitting social services against the Redevelopment agency and for that I take offense to that that is trying to divide and conquer and put the people who need the states support and help in the social service areas against a totally unrelated issue

1:25:23of the people approving this money and approving these things for the betterments of our communities since 1952.

1:25:33and the state [Music] legislative analyst has also indicated and and this surprises me that the state will not receive significant financial benefit from the Redevelopment agencies or has not and I don't know you got to get out from behind your computers and behind the

1:25:53figures and go out and visit places and if you do that you'll see places like downtown Napa downtown Pleasant Hill Pasadena Richmond San Pablo Pinole El Cerrito San Francisco Oakland Sacramento San Diego Los Angeles and that's just a small number all of these cities all of

1:26:12our cities including El Cerrito has benefited significantly to to the betterment of equality of life and for somebody to say that there hasn't been a benefit is just not shooting straight with the people so I'm as you can tell I'm for this and I'm glad we're going to vote on it and see

1:26:36where we go question about what we're doing here format wise okay and I think it's a question of um either our City attorney our Redevelopment agency attorney or both so really there are three actions being requested here one is to adopt a city council resolution

1:26:59approving this agreement one is to adopt a Redevelopment agency resolution approving this agreement and then the last part of this is to adopt a resolution opposing the governor's proposal regarding this so do those should can those all be combined or should they be done separately I think

1:27:20they should be done as separate actions since once well the last resolution um is sort of separate topic even though it's relevant to this this topic but since one is this Council resolution approving the agreement and one is the agency resolution approving the

1:27:35agreement they should be taken up as separate items and then once that's done take up the council resolution in opposition to the governor's budget three separate actions exactly so I'm well if we're ready to do it I'm willing to make the um um to move the first item which is a

1:27:51resolution of the city council of the city of El Cerrito approving a public improvements and cooperation agreement and making certain findings related thereto as described in attachment one of agenda item seven of our packet second all those in favor aye motion passes unanimously so it's

1:28:18further okay okay is there a motion on the Redevelopment agency item I'll move at the Redevelopment agency approves a resolution proving authorization to execute a public improvements and cooperation agreement between the city of El Cerrito and the El Cerrito Redevelopment agency and making certain

1:28:38findings related there too second discussion all in favor I I believe that was unanimous to city council so foreign motion for the the final um item on a council resolution before we do that I'd like to just make a quick comment and then maybe offer a couple of

1:29:09small amendments to the to the language that's contained in this resolution um I appreciate all the discussion that's gone on here and I really appreciate all that our staff does for the city I also want to just take this moment to acknowledge the serious difficulties the state's in

1:29:24um having to cut one out of every having to cut or replace one out of every fourth Dollar in the budget is an amazing amazingly difficult process that they have to go through and it's long overdue and the reason that it's so bad is in part due to the fact that it hasn't been

1:29:40confronted prior to this time and as as Californians we benefit immensely when our state is doing very well and as local government officials we have a lot of difficulties come down on us when things are not going well so to the extent that it serves any purpose just

1:29:57to State here that I think we're all really supportive of the state getting its finances in order and we're going to look at some really tough years I think the California Budget project didn't note that more than half of the cuts that are proposed by the governor are in

1:30:10health and human services so there's going to be a lot of difficulties in so many services that the state provides so just to acknowledge that we are going to go through some tough years but sort of I for one am vaguely feeling a bit optimistic that once we get through

1:30:24these really tough periods our state is going to come out of it better so that's one thing I'm very happy about um with that I do want to propose just a couple of changes to the language when I was reading through the resolution there were a couple of items I just wanted to

1:30:39clarify or make the language a little bit more um exact or or maybe exact for what I was hoping it would say so for example on the second whereas um this proposal represents I would say maybe we should delete language like more of the same misguided and and add

1:31:00something like potentially illegal because I would imagine this sort of state budget raid would go to court and we might want to just acknowledge that's potentially illegal um not knowing what the outcome of those sorts of things would be and in two other locations in the whereas is there

1:31:17are like there's language like we'll destroy so whereas this proposal this is the fourth whereas uh will destroy Local Economic Development I would just want to put language in like negatively impact um impede those sorts of things there's another destroy on the back page

1:31:34whereas eliminating Redevelopment will destroy the development of affordable housing in California that sort of language just seems um like it could be replaced with something like negatively impact we wouldn't assume that all affordable housing would would end if Redevelopment

1:31:48were abolished the only thing about is I actually think that the word destroy is the right word I would I would say in our city we have a number of projects all of which are um I believe not going to happen if if those properties for example are taken away from us by the state

1:32:16um but that's up for debate isn't that right whether or not they would take the properties away from us I would just kind of suggest more moderated language negatively impact to me kind of States what would happen most likely given that we don't know what future conditions are going to be

1:32:32I think that we're trying to convey a strong message here and so to water it down before we've even started is is this is a resolution it's stating an opinion it's not an action per se right um and um I would actually think that especially based on the stuff that I

1:32:55heard in Sacramento that assuming that it in fact happens on July 1st that the state does um shutdown Redevelopment agencies that one of the things that will happen almost immediately is it will go to court somebody will take it to court because people who are at those meetings said

1:33:15that they will do that um so um I I would rather say that um we think it is illegal because in fact if that is what we end up doing I don't know why we would want to say um you know I mean I think we're not helping our own case if we do that um and this is just simply a resolution

1:33:37it's not a um legal document it's my understanding is that correct legal staff yes and this resolution was written by our City attorney is that right no okay I've reviewed it but we've reviewed it okay okay I'd be uncomfortable with the language I'll tell you I'm I'm

1:33:59comfortable saying that okay it's elite we think it's illegal I can understand that I guess just in my sort of writing I try not to use words like destroy words like that that are not applicable to sort of a I don't know professional more more of a professional

1:34:16setting I would want to see things that are a little bit more measured and keeping in line with what's actually going to happen as opposed to not to be critical but if you use negatively impact I don't think that gives the pointed disagreement that you're we're looking

1:34:37for negative impact fine you know that it may negatively impact us but that's okay this will um in my opinion anyway severely damaged if not I like severely damage as well instead of destroying you don't like destroy you don't like it just sounds like construction to me or

1:35:00this is not like they're taking away a few dollars and things will be okay tomorrow oh right I I know what they're proposing and words like um well I'm sorry I forgot what you said exactly inevitably impact sounds like it's a minor thing um I I whereas I think that we are

1:35:20trying to say this is a big deal this is an extremely big deal I think that's you know in in extremely Layman's terminology this is a really big deal I think is what we're trying to um convey and so we need strong words to do that and in a resolution um you are trying to convey what you

1:35:42think about things and um I you know that I I that's why I would and if I could just I mean I I appreciate the conversation words have you know all the meaning are in the words we choose um and and I hear your your need but it's I think that's we have to put our our passionate hats on

1:36:04um to protect our dollars for our community because at this point I feel like the purpose of this resolution is to forward it to the state for their consideration and hearings and to have that make an impact to really you know show that there's a yeah it's more it's

1:36:18it's politics I guess since that's what we're a politicians so we actually get to do that um and really send that message because I think when you yeah when you look at these things and you look at all the the past work that's been done throughout agency um I'm okay with the language as is yeah

1:36:40but I I'm hearing that we have um three people who who are okay with uh the the language as is I'm willing to make a motion if that's what we want to do and um I I'm okay with that um just given that staff is okay with something like a statement that says reduce or sorry eliminating

1:37:04Redevelopment will destroy the development of affordable housing in California is the statement I guess if it said El Cerrito that actually I might I I would that be possible to alter that given that we know that our affordable housing projects are in danger that's something that I feel like we

1:37:23could speak really strongly about as opposed to the entire State I just felt like that was a little bit you know taking a very strong stance that no affordable housing would be developed in California if free development agencies were were abolished and that seems

1:37:39I'm not sure if we can can we can we say that I guess it's just the question and if we if we can say that I mean that that might be okay to say as long as we have sort of Staff support and there's the feeling that all affordable housing projects would not would discontinue

1:37:52being developed in California it's it's I think it's not necessary to do all of that um I think that to say it I mean I think the word destroy is a is a very typical word to put in this context and I think that the people who usually will get these things are used to seeing

1:38:17that and and these actually are um I mean I I don't think these are problematic words to put in in documents like this um uh so I really would like to see it stay the same so I think I'll go ahead because I am hearing and and make a motion and I did hear you say that it

1:38:38would be okay at one point you said that I think um that I so I will go ahead and make a motion um to pass the resolution in opposition to the administration's proposal to abolish Redevelopment agencies in California as referenced in attachment four of agenda item seven

1:39:01second all those in favor aye um that was unanimous thank you um I know that's so with that we can move on to um item number eight Council liaison reports foreign I can start if you want somebody to start um I attended a meeting of the East Bay division of the league of California's

1:39:38cities and guess what their um the topic of their speaker was the impact of the elimination of Redevelopment agencies and Enterprise zones as outlined in the governor's proposed budget and what it will mean for cities so it was a very hot topic item at the league meeting and

1:40:01they also talked about a thing called Enterprise Zone which we don't have in the city but a number of cities do have and I I confess to say that I don't totally understand Enterprise zones but that's another category for the city's that have them that are at risk and

1:40:21that's the agenda item that was holding up the first one that prevented them from getting to from to the topic of Redevelopment said that prevented the assembly from getting to the topic of Freedom element today um so um I just wanted to mention that I also attended the committee on Aging

1:40:42meeting and they re-elected their prior chair as the new chair and her name is Elizabeth cardi and that's all I want to report on the EQ and then say the eqc for the I think the first time ever lacked uh a quorum and it may have been because the meeting date was changed to a date that isn't

1:41:05the normal meeting date and it may have made it impossible for everyone to get there because of that but normally they do have pretty much everybody there so thank you I'll go next on none of my committees that I'm a liaison to met over the last two weeks I expect they'll be meeting

1:41:23over in March I did go to the Rotary Club and made a presentation there just to introduce myself and kind of get to know what they're working on in the next year and what sorts of things they're interested in I will note that they were interested in um seeing the San Pablo Albus Avenue

1:41:37specific plan come to sort of a conclusion so that there's sort of clear Direction on for their members about what will be expected of them in the coming years so that's something interesting and I'm looking forward to starting those meetings again soon great um just want to let you know the the

1:41:57fields down at uh Gilman Avenue it's the jpa The Joint Powers Authority for developing that field five cities the softball field will be in sometime in late spring and that'll leave just a few things to go in the master plan which is the baseball field and some of the

1:42:20concession stands and additional parking uh down there although the parking was added to last year and uh so anyway that's that's with that we have a Planning Commission coming up next week and just looking forward to the work to begin at the Target site for uh Safeway

1:42:45thank you thank you last arts and culture committee meeting and we saw a really interesting mock-up to scale model of the coming um public art that will be mounted onto the light poles throughout San Pablo Avenue to keep adding to the great things that are already there and

1:43:09um that the committee decided to move forward with um basically creating 50 more designs currently they have about 25 that they've worked on and vetted and so it's it's really exciting to see this project to take fruition um another thing that this commission worked on was reviewing started to

1:43:32review artist proposals for the gallery space and I just wanted to plug and remind El Cerrito artists at home if you're watching we're listening to apply because we only got one El Cerrito artist submitting their portfolio so I would love to see more I know there's

1:43:47lots of great talent in our community so um says the um so yeah so once they they get through the final design the the council will get to take a look at that so um and then the the human relations commission did not meet and since we have last met so nothing to report there

1:44:10other than the new appointments and um also attended the Contra Costa Mayors conference recently in Richmond Congressman Garamendi gave us a presentation on what his um goals were for the year looking at introducing bills that would require local purchasing purchasing of locally

1:44:33made Transit vehicles and you know ideas for economic stimulation for the nation um and we also made a number of appointments to Regional bodies including CCTA Dave Hudson from San Ramon um the County hazardous materials commission Delaney and Hudson as well for primary and Alternate and then

1:45:00um Amy worth from the city of Orinda was reappointed to a four-year MTC term representing all the mayors and finally at the West County mayor's conference we which we hosted for the first of five more meetings in our conference room Hillside conference room had a discussion about Redevelopment I

1:45:22as well with our our neighboring cities in the West County region and it's pretty it's devastating these you know multiple cities are would go under um given Redevelopment and given that their majority of their cities are in Redevelopment agencies and so there's it's just kind of it's

1:45:45mind-boggling um what these City agencies have to do including ours to to handle the uncertainty um and I really it's kind of it yeah the nightmare that I hope we can get through um through the coming months but um finally I just want to I think I don't think we we mentioned but we all right

1:46:09after our last council meeting um all of us except for uh councilman Jones was at the league of cities um in Sacramento for the new mayors and new conference uh new council members training and um got lots of great you know Refreshers on on as well as new um information on you know the state

1:46:31budget and and so forth and just wanted to let folks know that we we definitely um stand very um well El Cerrito just when we I felt that when when you heard all the questions and all the case studies um it's a really helpful way to gauge you know see where our city lies in the

1:46:51spectrum of all the 400 cities out there and um and I just have to say it's it's always a really good reminder that we we do have a very well functioning um city that has you know I keep repeating it but there's trusts that definitely trust between community members council members and

1:47:11um and staff and you know kind of these critical components of transparency and open dialogue are just are never to be should never be underestimated um so that's I think yeah that's that's it for me so anything else oops our next meeting oh yeah that's right so look at that

1:47:36um we'll adjourn to our next meeting which I believe it will be the day after the President's Day holiday on February 22nd so that will adjourn at 9 28.

1:47:52foreign