Concurrent City Council and Municipal Services Corporation Meeting April 4, 2011

0:00:0018th the work parties are from nine until noon and then there will be a free lunch for all participants and their families at noon at the community center if you don't have a work site and would like to help out then what you can do around 8 30 or so is come over to the

0:00:22community center and we'll assign you a location and if you want to still sign up you can do so online at earthday at ci.el Dash Cerrito let's see Earth Day at ci.el.cerino.ca.us and there's also information on our website so I hope you'll all come and join us as we have a

0:00:49great day I think anything yeah I think you have two items one is visited the recycling center today and got a nice tour and I recommend that to anybody if you have the time there within four to five weeks of demoing and starting to build the recycling center and I was real pleased with what I saw

0:01:16heard we are on top of it um the city staff will be moving out of their facilities office facilities a full two weeks before anything gets started which is really amazing and actually helps out the construction process going so um uh they had indicated and showed me how

0:01:36they were going to be we were going to be able to offer most Services now that we're offering just in a much more condensed area and for the period of construction there'll be a lot of movement they have they'll have to do a lot of moving of of items and and that sort of thing but

0:01:56they think that they can do it which I think will help uh actually it'll probably Amaze some of the people who knows what it takes to operate something like the recycling center on a construction site so I'm really looking forward to that looks like it's good the

0:02:15second thing and I'm going to ask if you don't mind I'll take I'm going to take a few minutes with this one because I attended last week the California Recreation or Redevelopment association's annual conference and I thought it was important to go down there or at least have some

0:02:34representation down there because of the critical uh proposal about Redevelopment by the governor and but I also wanted to evaluate how our agency operates uh in comparison to other operations as well as the requirements of the Redevelopment and other agencies in the state

0:02:57so with that I went down there and I can say there it was uh two and a half days of conference very informative the areas of emphasis that I thought are at least the major ones was sustainable communities and development affordable housing uh the promo promotion and education to

0:03:19the public of what the what Redevelopment does in the areas of jobs education and and the environment and then the big one the elephant in the room was the legislation and the update on that so I'd like to concentrate on that since I I attended the sessions that dealt with that and

0:03:40with uh public policy in in public officials so I just want to say that the current Governor's proposal now this is as of Friday I did not hear anything I I'm maybe I missed it but I I was kind of keeping an ear out today they still haven't voted it uh the proposal still

0:03:59hasn't been voted on by the legislature um and at least at the conference there was talk of possible compromise and reform being considered or at least the fallback position but I I wasn't able to confirm that so I don't know if that was wishful thinking or actually it was

0:04:16going on because as you know everything fell apart up there and nobody's talking to anybody so I I I I don't know what what's going on that by the way it was interesting the governor was invited to speak at the conference and he respectfully declined so I thought that was kind of interesting

0:04:34anyway the uh and the California Redevelopment Association has proposed an alternative uh to the to the governor's plan naturally it it keeps the agencies intact and functioning but has uh plans for additional funding to go to the education portion of the governor's plan

0:04:59so there have but there hasn't been a response from the governor or any of his people uh there were two reports that were uh that they that they talked a lot about at the conference and one was a report on Redevelopment to the state senate that was last year actually it was done

0:05:20before the governor sounded like even before the governor took office and then there was another one uh that we may you may have heard about was the State Controllers report that was done after the governor put out his proposal and by many accounts including our legal

0:05:38council the state Senate's report uh was was probably an even-handed report and there was a number of things that they suggested and got but of the two that one seemed to be the one that was uh balanced and and taking a fair look at it it was the report by the state

0:05:57controller that audited 18 selected agencies that was conducted this year after the governor announced his proposal to eliminate Redevelopment the by a lot of people and not necessarily ones that were raising the flag for redevelopment at every turn really said they thought that the report

0:06:22was flawed in several areas and so let me just comment on that um and these were comments by agency professionals legal counsels elected officials and Consultants that specialized in Redevelopment so even though that you know the conference itself was for redevelopment there were people that

0:06:45took a critical look at that and agreed with some things but found the report flawed and I think it summed up well by a consultant not an agency or staff person put it that the purpose of the report it was to him look to him is getting to the head of the governor's

0:07:04parade on Redevelopment in other words more political than than not and I this is a consensus now of comments that I heard clearly the governor and the legislatures as well as his advisors and the legislative vanilla analysis on Redevelopment do not completely understand

0:07:29Redevelopment and the complexities of what the proposed legislation will create um the legislation and the embellishment of Redevelopment also was concluded that will not create the type of Revenue that is being suggested by the plan in other words there's a lot of money being thrown out

0:07:51there and a lot of promises and yet people don't see where it's where it's going to be because of the complex nature and the over 400 agencies that are in the state at least in the short term uh the conference gave several examples through Workshop the the workshops there

0:08:10of fundamental flaws in some of the areas of the report and its conclusions for instance the reporting of jobs created as a requirement it never was required and yet the state controller slammed the agencies for not doing that it doesn't mean that we should do it or

0:08:28it's a good idea but it it never has been required and never asked for until this audit and also another example was the cities were reportedly it was reported to be randomly selected at first when in fact they were not and that was later confirmed by the controller's office so

0:08:50um that was kind of interesting however both this report and the state report pointed out valid areas of improvement needed both at the state and local levels and I'll just name four of them real quickly one was uh neat consistent and better reporting mechanisms and

0:09:06review procedures Statewide standard development or excuse me standard definition and accounting procedures for planning and administrative expenses standardized requirements for recording record-keeping project by project is was the main area in that and better understanding by policy makers

0:09:30and staff of Redevelopment requires and requirements and limitations and the state senate report in particular did indicate that most of the Angels agencies operate are operating within the intent and spirit of the Redevelopment law and its regulations and that was by the state report

0:09:48so what I'd like to just say concluding that this is what I concluded out of two and a half days of of uh workshops and and talking to people that if the government's proposal is adopted uh it will have a lasting adversary effect effect on how El Cerrito can effectively

0:10:06and efficiently continue to improve quality of life environment of our community and and you can say that about every other community it has a Redevelopment agency I think if the governor's proposal is not enacted we can expect reform um in Redevelopment so whether whether

0:10:30the proposals is passed or is not we're going to have change so I think the message was we we should be ready and flexible enough to adjust to whatever comes our way in order to continue with our projects and the direction of our projects the other thing I'd like to point out

0:10:49that I think our agency is managed effectively and efficiently and has followed the best practices in place that are in place that conform to the state regulatory Spirit intent of Redevelopment and I did I took a critical look and and that's my conclusion not once did I feel

0:11:10the need to hide is some of the deficiencies and the overall poor performance project management reporting and record keeping of other agencies and those cited by the state were examined and analyzed and that was and uh people were critical of agencies that were operating either outside the spirit

0:11:29or outside of bounds or didn't know what was happening in their own agency and the thought was if we need reform or or or there has to be some punitive action taken take it against those who aren't following the law and leave the other ones to continue to operate and improve

0:11:49their communities and then I I'd uh say that agency staff is doing what is required and expected in order to operate the agency's business when it within the Public's trust I'm I'm very satisfied that that is going on here in El Cerrito and lastly our I think our agency

0:12:16um is getting very good advice from our legal team in the areas of conducting agency business reporting standards legal obligations and transparencies and proper actions required to enter into agreements and contracts and by the way our our firm is highly highly thought of

0:12:35throughout the state and Redevelopment legal Redevelopment issues so lastly all in all even with the legislative action still imbalanced measuring our agency against the many critical analyzing points of evaluation that were expressed at the conference and my natural agency biased for our

0:13:00agency notwithstanding in my opinion the El Cerrito Redevelopment agency is operating well by any accepted form of measurement as any one agency can be expected in in conducting the business of the community so I think it was a worthwhile conference learned a lot I

0:13:21think it just shows that it just reconfirmed for me that we're doing a real good job here right now and that everything's still up in the air so that's it thank you thank you any reports okay any reports from staff I just have a quick work sorry to council reports real quick I just want

0:13:43to let remind people since our next meeting is uh regular meeting is beginning of May on May 7th onebayarea.org that's the the regional uh sustainable Community strategy strategy planning effort um Contra Costa County will be having our one meeting I guess to kick off the

0:14:05event in um in Concord at the uh I I'll have to check but check one Bay area.org I know it's May uh May 7th on Saturday and it's the beginning of the regional meetings and I don't know if Janet anything to contribute but I think that's at this point there are some meetings on the regional

0:14:27transportation plan I could add the states um two of uh them are in Contra Costa County I mean excuse me in West Contra Costa County let me just look on the the dates excuse me day this month and um I think it's kind of a needle in a haystack here uh well one of them is I

0:15:00know on the um 22nd at 8am at uh WIC attack is going to be a discussion of the RTP the regional transportation plan and then um see if I can find the other one on um April 13th at Maple Hall that's the um big room at the San Pablo City Hall at church and San Pablo Avenue there

0:15:38will be another one at 6 30 pm and all are welcome so if you have thoughts on what the transportation system should look like for the next what 30 years this is a good time to come talk about it and bring your ideas and express your opinion thank you and then the other date I want

0:15:59to let people or get on people's calendar on May 14th uh Contra Costa county is actually Saturday May 7th from 9 A.M to 12 p.m at the Concord Senior Center okay great and that is at onebayarea.org thank you and the uh our San Pablo Avenue Spring Fling on May 14th nine to

0:16:22noon starting at I believe at the Cerrito theater so more details will come but save the date from May 14th in the morning and that's it for me and so we can move on to our next item any Communications from the public we have no speaker slips your honor no speakers okay and no

0:16:48presentations um can I have a motion for the consent calendar I'll move that we adopt consent calendar items 5A through 5e second all those in favor please say aye aye was unanimous um we can now move on to policy matters the commercial Rehabilitation Loan program

0:17:22oh just a point of order before we start do we have to make sure that the other two members of the corporation are attendants I didn't hear their names called when we took a role member Hannon member Pincus thank you and yes I've been advised by the City attorney that I can take minutes and

0:17:40vote so a good evening mayor and members of the municipal Services Corporation board my name is Dwayne Dalman senior economic development program manager I'm here this evening to request approval to establish the commercial Rehabilitation Loan program before I get into the specifics of the

0:18:00program I wanted to give a little background on why we are proposing this as you know part of our economic development program includes recruiting new businesses to the city of El Cerrito and working to allow existing businesses to grow and expand here in our city

0:18:16but however being a built out Community you know we run into the difficulty of of really since we don't have a lot of vacant land available um our biggest challenge is really finding suitable sites uh with many of the potential sites that we have we're also faced with the financial Channel

0:18:31challenge of of converting an existing use of a building over to a new use in addition some of the buildings that we're looking at also require seismic retrofits to kind of compound this in in this economy you know a lot of the property owners that we talk to are reluctant or

0:18:48don't have necessarily the financial means to fund the entire conversion themselves and tenants of new businesses that are starting up typically run into the issue of of spending more money than they thought in starting their business also I think if any of you have done you

0:19:06know Rehabilitation work or home improvement projects on older buildings you realize that typically you run into costs that go up or cost more than what you plan rather than going down um so with all that said I think that's the reason why we're pushing and why

0:19:22we're proposing this commercial rehabilitation program we've been working hard to get you know new investment here in the city of El Cerrito in our community for the last year we've had a priority on the south end of town around the the Cerrito theater and the El Cerrito Plaza area

0:19:38and really the the part of the reason for that is just to leverage the investment that the city has already made in their in the in the Cerrito theater as well as the the strengths that we have by the plaza and the El Cerrito bar station we've seen some success in the area we

0:19:52have a new Vietnamese restaurant Nong thong that opened up um the owners of the business uh are working hard to open up the elevation 66 Brewing Company which is going to be moving in they're pushing for May 1st or beginning of May in the space right next door and then we also recently

0:20:10um finalized an agreement with Mechanics Bank to allow us to have uh access to their parking lot in the evening to help out with some customers for some of these new businesses so now I'll get into the specifics of the program and then also kind of finalize by talking about the process

0:20:27that we'll use for the evaluation first of all borrowers can receive up to twenty thousand dollars under this program in assistance and similar to our video surveillance Loan program that we already have these will be forgivable loans Over a four-year period so that every year 25 percent of the

0:20:44loan will be forgiven as long as the approved tenant continues to occupy the space loan loan funds can be used for a variety of purposes including architectural Design Services signage facade improvements seismic retrofit accessibility improvements fixtures as well as general Rehabilitation

0:21:05now this is a matching funds program so so all the dollar so any loan amount that we give has to be matched by equal amount that the borrower has spent on the project loan all of our loans will be secured if the loans made to the property owner be secured by deed of trust if it's made to

0:21:22a tenant it will be secured by UCC filing and all the non-real estate assets and loans for construction work will be subject to prevailing wage I want to also point out the difference I mentioned seismic retrofit and that's going to be handled a little bit differently because of the number of

0:21:40buildings that we have that need seismic retrofit work and and The Limited funds that we have available under this program for this fiscal year if someone comes to us and just wants to use the money for seismic retrofit alone then the limit would be ten thousand dollars

0:21:54however if they do that in combination with with doing exterior work to the building and or bringing in a new tenant that we approve then they can go to the full twenty thousand dollars so I want to I want to finish up by talking about how we're going to be evaluating these loan requests and then

0:22:11I'll open up to any questions that you have first of all loans will be dispersed on a first come first search basis we talked about in the agenda or the staff report that we'll be giving initial preference to deals that come in around the south end of town for the

0:22:26reasons that we talked about but we'll look at deals throughout the city of El Cerrito we want to see deals that increase economic Vitality to the city we want to see deals that will bring new and improved tenants to our community and we want to see deals that will

0:22:40improve the exterior of our buildings and bring in higher better and higher and better uses enclosing funding for the program for this this fiscal year is currently available already in the municipal Services Corporation and falls under the cooperation agreement that we recently

0:22:55enacted so that'll open up to any questions that you may have the approximate budget that you think is available for our participants right now for this fiscal year we have a hundred thousand dollars great thank you Dwayne could you go into a little bit more detail about why we have a

0:23:17preference area in this program when our Redevelopment area is almost three three miles long right this program really covers the entire Redevelopment project area the the main point that we had was that when we went through our economic um uh goals for last year one of the

0:23:37goals was to to somewhat concentrate on the south end of town by the theater the feeling was that because of the investment the city's already made in that area and because of the strengths that we have that that we want to kind of foster more of a entertainment dining

0:23:54type of of atmosphere around the Cerrito theater and so so some of our work's been concentrated in that area and that's where we've seen some of the results so far so but having said that you know if we had an applicant that came in tomorrow that that wanted to do a project and any

0:24:11part of the Redevelopment project area we would look at all those but when we say preference if I've got a business in the South part of town in the theater so-called Theater District and councilman Lyman well we couldn't legally but anyway uh councilman Lyman has one in the center of town if we say

0:24:32preference am I going to get preference over the middle part of town well the way it's set up now because we have a limited budget I mean right now we if if we had five deals that came in for the for twenty thousand dollars we want to be able to we want to come up

0:24:48with a way that we could um prioritize the deals that we would that we would approve first and so we would be giving preference to that part of town initially and and if we had the same amount of deals okay and when does this program begin uh uh is if this if this program's approved

0:25:10this evening then we would move towards finalizing our loan applications and loan documents and then we'll be then we'd be ready to go okay but what happens if the state legislation wipes out this is with money that we have transferred from the old right so the agency account into

0:25:30the the municipal account right but if there's legislation that wipes that out and they want their money what do we do if we're going to start the program before the legislation takes place or doesn't take place before we know I guess and maybe I can I mean we're we're not

0:25:53appropriating new funds for this program this the the funds for this program are coming out of existing funds right I understand that but there's also there's some people in the legislature that wants to anything that the Redevelopment agencies did uh after January 1st will be null and

0:26:12void is the way I read it now I could be wrong on that but um and I no it is existing money we have had this idea for a long time it's been in our plan um and so I I didn't know where that stood and I I didn't have time to give you a call uh beforehand to get a better background on

0:26:32it so that's why I'm asking now if I could add two things one is it it's our belief that by transferring the money to the municipal Service Corporation it'd be outside the legislation and two I believe we thought that since the legislation's not been signed we were worried that the

0:26:49effective date was the trigger and so the trigger hasn't been pulled yet at the time you've essentially awarded and created this project so this money is appropriated and encumbered so I mean we would certainly take the position that it's not available it's gone

0:27:05I mean it's contracted it's a way I mean the state is going could contest anything I mean it's going to contest that we don't own the Cerrito theater I mean they're going to contest everything so the question is do we not do we stop working because we're concerned they may

0:27:20at some point try to retroactively take our assets no I'm I'm not for stopping work I just want to know what our fallback position is if there's a ruling against us on this that's all yeah well I mean what's your if I were to expand on this hypothetical what you're really saying

0:27:46is what if they get a ruling that not only undoes the um the Cooperative agreement but actually can can reach all the way to a separately executed contract that is ostensibly valid between the redevelop between the MSC and the property owner or tenant who has already expended those

0:28:05funds well yeah I mean I think just by explaining what you what what the hypothetical actually entails I think it's unlikely that they'd be able to reach that far if they were then would be in a fight with them about about well the money's already spent where's the money going to come

0:28:22from well if they're going to take it from the agency they're already taking all the I mean if that if you've reached that point in the litigation they're already taking everything that the agency had anyway so you haven't really lost anything by proceeding with

0:28:34um authorizing the program and making the loans plus we're at a hundred thousand dollars and we we can cover that with other means if we absolutely had to in the the future so okay thank you I just have one comment thank you Mr Dalman for the presentation um I was uh reading through this and

0:28:56just thinking that this is a good opportunity to make contact with business owners that maybe you speak to every day um but it seems like a good chance to also just let keep them abreast of any other City programs we might want them to know about uh like our green Business

0:29:09program and maybe just let them know of other funds they may be able to to leverage like PG e you know energy type of funds where they could sort of combine more than one upgrade that they're making at the same time so I thought it might be a good opportunity to just let them know about publicize

0:29:27those sorts of things especially if there's other departments in the city that are trying to get you know uh information out to those businesses okay any questions um I just had a quick question um about uh your I guess level of interest that you you've heard on the the word on

0:29:48the street of potential applicants and uh we have three applicants uh that are anxious and ready to go um and that that has just been from the businesses that I've those particular businesses that I've talked to so far without any kind of um you know release of information so I think that that

0:30:09there'd be a um a pretty strong interest very soon once once this program became public and how do you I guess how did you come up with the the 10 and the 20 cost estimates do you feel like those I guess are informed by you know I guess it depends on how big the project and all that but yeah more

0:30:30background on on that those numbers um when we kind of started with with the hundred thousand dollars and then thought well we had we already knew we had some interest from two or three businesses and we didn't want to create a program where you know it would only

0:30:43be able to you know affect one or two businesses so we bought it down to that twenty thousand thinking that you know because we're doing a match that would mean that the minimum kind of project would have to be forty thousand dollars if you went up to that maximum

0:30:58um and then we looked at because we passed the the you know the seismic retrofit ordinance um and that we have been looking for and haven't been successful in finding other funds to assist that program that we didn't want to leave them out of this program also um the issue that we thought though was

0:31:15that because we have I believe it's either 16 or 17 businesses or buildings that need retrofit that that if we didn't somehow kind of lower that then then this program could easily turn into basically just a seismic retrofit assistance program in that because we

0:31:32have 17 businesses that that they could use all that money right away so the thought was because we wanted to keep them in the program but somehow you know not have all the money go out the door right away that we would limit it down to the ten thousand that's kind of how

0:31:46we came up with that great thanks um um and then the final question is what is your Outreach plan for getting the word out and letting folks know uh well we have I mean I have three businesses that that are aware of the program and are ready to apply as soon as possible we have our Economic

0:32:06Development website I'm in the process of putting together also um our Economic Development we're doing an electronic newsletter and so I think through those Avenues we can also advertise in the chamber and on the city website I think it won't be difficulty uh you know going

0:32:24out besides you know what what Rebecca pointed out I mean we we have one-on-one interaction with a lot of businesses so so it'd be easy for us to Target and talk to individual Property Owners about you know that this program exists great thanks that's it for me any other yeah

0:32:43speakers do we have any speakers no speakers your honor before you take a motion actually I'd like to propose some modification to uh paragraph 10 just the presentation and the agenda Bill were much clearer than the way the text reads at least to me um I would like the um sentence starting

0:33:07with if if an applicant completes exterior improvements or building rehabilitation in addition to the seismic retrofit improvements um it it implies that and it did well because their word is in addition it to me it implies that there's an additional twenty thousand dollars but

0:33:26the presentation and the and the staff reports very clear that ten thousand in loan funds the an additional ten thousand dollars in loan funds will be available for a total of twenty thousand so I'd like to make that a little clearer because the way this sentence reads you could the

0:33:44ordinance could be interpreted to be thirty thousand total okay um so I I just want to so what I'm proposing is the 20 000 that's there would be changed to ten thousand at the end of the sentence for a total of twenty thousand would be added which sentence are you changing the

0:34:02sentence that begins with if if an applicant completes exterior improvements or building rehabilitation in addition to the seismic retrofit improvements ten thousand dollars in loan funds will be available for a total of twenty thousand we're into discussion now or

0:34:23Alyssa I thought we had already done that all right questions yeah so good question we can do yeah well I had oh I'm sorry no that was my one discussion item so please proceed nobody else I I just it I don't know how the rest you feel but I just something about preference

0:34:47the preference um it's it's number three uh at the bottom of page one of the resolution um again not the goal of the program or anything it's just that the Redevelopment area is is a whole area and we're giving preference to one area and I I think we can do the

0:35:14the whole program and it wouldn't hurt anything if we just take took that out um I know what you're trying to do and quite possibly you know you can make sure that those people for sure know about it down there especially the um seismic retrofit I know we have what two

0:35:33or three buildings in that area and to me that's pretty important safety of those buildings plus they have a requirement coming up that they have to somehow take care of that so so I understand that and but when we're talking about an official record I don't know if we should give preference to

0:35:52anybody just puts us in an area we don't have to be in in my opinion you're talking about just Geographic preference right versus looking at preferred uses or the target area of preferences surrounding the Cerrito theater and the El Cerrito Plaza yeah well I do I do have a thought I'm not

0:36:12sure how I feel about that exactly but my thought is that we are trying to is that we seem to be focusing a lot of investment on a cluster there's the idea that if you get sort of one note of activity if you pour a lot of resources into that then that node kind of

0:36:28snowballs into a successful area rather than we only have five Pro you know at the minimum we'll get to do five projects so just envisioning those being spread all along the corridor that would be great but it seems like the sum of five projects in a small area is greater

0:36:46than five projects spread along three miles is sort of the the Counterpoint to that and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that but that was my initial reaction to your comment was just envisioning these hundred thousand dollars being spread along three miles

0:37:00doesn't have the impact of investing a little bit more money in a smaller geographic area I do hear what you're saying about giving preference to one part of the RDA project area as opposed to another one but I it may be that we're having a bigger impact with that amount of money by putting it in a

0:37:17smaller area okay but no I understand that my thing is though if we if we have a business person who has a store and she wants to renovate she puts it up we can only pick one or the other and we give preference because of area why doesn't that person they're a person

0:37:42they have a business they have needs just because they're not in the Theater District it could be that they wouldn't get the loan anyway that the other project is better but I'd much rather have the decisions made on the Merit of the project regardless of area rather than

0:37:59saying well you know we know you have needs but you know we we prefer to do the the the center the uh the Cerrito theater area yeah unless we're going to make a commitment in the future that okay we we took care of that node down there so next up is Central and we'll do that next year and

0:38:21then the year after that it's the Del Norte node and we'll do that in the third then I I could if we that isn't what the proposal is but if if that was going to happen then I wouldn't have any problem with saying you know the first hundred thousand is going here the second hundred thousands

0:38:36here and the third is down there whatever we want to do I mean our our project area is so large I mean I think that I'm I'm used to kind of seeing them in little sub areas and cities so ours is so big that it kind of seems like a strategy for economic development in particular particular sub

0:38:54areas within our project area is appropriate um but I do hear what you're saying I think it's good to give it some thought if I can ask and just throw in the mix the other consideration of of um you know a lot of requests for proposals often you know especially for

0:39:11Grant per Federal grant programs of you know having a higher matching leverage and if we can you know I think that might be more important we're saying we're capping it at 50 of what the project cost is um so instead would ideally we could be leveraging you know much higher

0:39:36higher matches and I don't know if we can it would that be a preferred way to give preference if you know for example a business owner was ready to give you know put in you know 40 000 over rather than 20. so matching it you know above and beyond the 50 percent

0:39:55um I don't know if that's out there if that's even possible if the people would be willing to do that but um yeah I'd like to like I'd like to resolve this Geographic issue first before introducing a new criteria that that might be a suitable substitution mind you

0:40:10um I actually would like item three to potentially be revised to be um activity nodes from those uh Sam Pablo's specific plan because we do have we just passed activity nodes we use the term activity nodes in in a document we we just reviewed uh a month ago so we've

0:40:30got this this term um I believe it we it's defined as essentially the two BART stations around the two ends of the of the San Pablo Avenue and um in the center as well um because I this was and I will agree with are we Corporation members corporate Corporation member Jones that

0:40:53this one did catch me and I do understand the merits of it but the ordinance is what persists and and so I I actually I think you made a very compelling argument um agency member Jones is that the ordinance this is what persists but it but it is but it is it's the one

0:41:21that persists it's the one that's going to be on record that the staff will use as their decision guidance document you know it's one that an applicant would pull out and say wait a minute I bought this property because this this guidance document said the Theater

0:41:39District was going to have a a preference so I actually think that exciting specific locations is not I do like the idea of putting our money into focused areas but citing specific locations does um you know set precedence for the future can you so you're I guess what I

0:41:59heard you say is that you wanted us to refer to the specific plan nodes yeah and I would if I could if you're going to do something like that you see the general plan the specific plan is not adopted yeah but so the general plan does use the word nodes correctly yeah but you're still picking

0:42:15specific areas I guess but it's balanced across the the Redevelopment agency so I guess just to focus on the geographic preference I would state that I I think um you know economically the plaza and is has the most momentum the strongest you know per square foot rent values and

0:42:38with all that I I it does seem to make sense to me if you know a hundred thousand you know I mean of course it depends on where economy goes but at least we could use this as a demonstration area and um and then understand you know maybe fine-tune the model in this one

0:42:56geographic area first and just given that it's you know it seems like it aligns with our staff um with you know um Dwayne's work plan anyway as far as what the priorities were established from prior Year from our prior year um I would like to see the I I'm okay

0:43:14with the the preference then then I would like to see that say that the initial targeted area of preference for the initial hundred thousand dollars is the area surrounding the Cerrito theater and the El Cerrito Plaza Shopping Center it has to have a sunset a cap

0:43:29that's that's the same that's basically what I'm saying is that if you're going to pick a specific location you gotta Sunset it for the first hundred I would be supportive of that and we do hope to do expand this hopefully there's interest that was my next question yeah won't we have money

0:43:51to to do this program next year if everything goes according to plan we hope so yeah we hope so I know I can't see you can't say definitely I understand well I I wish it wasn't in there but it looks like the votes are there to keep it in I would I would then recommend uh

0:44:15what what what are we corporate corporate members board members board member Lyman uh indicated if we're going to preference it we put our limits on it that makes sense to me board member lineman could you please repeat the language that you had proposed for number three of the

0:44:37resolution yes I mean I'm proposing to insert the words for the first one hundred thousand dollars and it will read initial targeted areas of preference for the first one hundred thousand dollars is the area surrounding the Cerrito theater and El Cerrito Plaza Shopping Center

0:45:00doesn't it already say that it does not say for the initial one hundred thousand dollars okay but the other words that you said correct I'm inserting just those uh forwards there were no funding there's no funding at this point in the resolution at all so today's Journey you don't have a

0:45:18problem with that I need an appropriation the money is already set in the budget so I mean that's fine the first 100 000 of funding for the area surrounding the street of theater in El Cerrito Plaza Shopping Center yeah I mean you could add a couple of additional words to indicate that it's

0:45:40the initial hundred thousand dollars of funding for the program so and something like initial targeted area of preference for the first 100 000 of the program is the area surrounding the Cerrito theater in El Cerrito Plaza Shopping Center now now if you would like to talk about

0:46:02your additional criteria I'm curious from staff if that was considered or if that would be a useful I guess criteria to help sort out amongst potential applicants you know in in terms of yeah prioritizing applicants that the amount of uh match from the applicant coming in

0:46:29uh the people that I've talked to most of them have have spent and have already spent more than the twenty thousand dollars so the um the businesses that I bought talked to have put in well you know in advance of that uh so there so if we went to a system that that said that you

0:46:50had to you would give more preference to people that had a higher match than um I don't think that would be an issue for at least for the people that I've talked to so far but it would be for funding that they were um are newly or I guess projects that they're going to commit to versus past

0:47:09projects correct like we're not looking at how much money they've spent in the past but what they're planning to as a result of our additional help I think it's if I could I think it's both I think there are projects underway or projects that are not quite completed

0:47:23like one of the one of the things I think Anonymous speak for Dwayne one of the themes that we hear is we've spent what we're spending what we can spend but we can't afford signage we can't afford okay outdoor seating we can't afford they're just we're done you know

0:47:37we're sort of done we're willing to invest x amount of dollars into this business but that's it hmm so how and and I guess yeah so if we're gonna introduce that kind of criteria how far back would we then be counting in terms of their their matching I guess costs

0:47:56I if I might add um that might be fine if we were doing this before they had even started the project but I'm hearing yeah unless I'm wrong that these are people who have already started the project and that's different than a lot of application processes that I've seen

0:48:14where there's a matching um but I think it depends how you define the project I mean yeah I mean you you could have a project that's essentially open but we're not going to get nice signage or any signage for example or if you can Define the project as the whole

0:48:31business where you can Define the project as components of the project such as signage or Street dining or others so I guess the question is if you're not comfortable with counting any of the investment they've made in this to date then we would need to know that

0:48:45because my guess is then they're just going to be done and we're not going to get any of the a lot of the amenities I think we want that's what we're hearing is the amenities yeah they're just no extra money for this we hadn't contemplated any sort of matching funds grants or investment as

0:49:03criteria to this program at this point but I thought the criteria was that it could the the what we're giving them can't exceed 50 of what their total project cost is we are referring to a total project cost in the resolution so how are we defining that is the question

0:49:18then right the way it's defined is that is that whatever dollar amount that they come to us for if they come to us for twenty thousand dollars the requirement is that they at least have to match that in money that they've spent on the project so that's the way the criteria is is set

0:49:34up so within the last year I mean that's that's what we're just trying to discuss within the last year within the last six months I mean they they could have said oh I spent twenty thousand dollars on this building in 1980 you know there's got to be some backward limit right I

0:49:50mean I think we've for the people that we've talked to in in our initial kind of conversations have been you know if you have a project that's going on now and if this is approved now um then we would allow the flexibility to have I mean we wouldn't go back to a

0:50:03year um but we'd allow the flexibility to say that if you've spent within a reasonable amount of time open permits I mean what's the criteria because you what I just heard was that agent board member Han and say a project could be a storefront so so I'm just trying to

0:50:21figure out is is a project an open permit I think it could be either it could be someone who has come in and wants to redo the signage redo the lighting redo any kind of things although the building could have been there for a long time or it could be a project that

0:50:42is recent or even underway but is not going to go as far as we would like as the design review board would like as a streetscape would like and they're not required to and it's trying to get those extra amenities to sort of bring it to another level I can see a business who has been in place for a

0:51:05while saying I want to improve my storefront by getting a better sign let's say even though their project is complete I see the better sign as being a new project if that's what we're talking about that that's okay I think what if I may suggest at least the where what I'm

0:51:25getting out of this conversation is we don't want to go back and pay for something that's already completed I mean in other words two years ago somebody put in a new storefront and now they want to you know help to pay their loan uh going for that that isn't what

0:51:40this is for it's it's for new projects whether new store or a new project outside seating or or a new signage and I'm willing to include recently completed I mean something that say their their permit is less than you know whether they're closed less than 30 or 60 days I mean

0:51:58that that's something that's reasonable because um as board member Hannah has pointed out we want something extra that they didn't have funds for and and they're re-tenanting it they're repackaging it they're you know then that's that's I think that's appropriate so I'm not I'm

0:52:15not sure I know what that how far back we're talking about but it certainly I think uh staff member Dalman said you know not looking at a year if you restrict it though I mean you could get a business that's like fat apples for instance and I'm not suggesting they're applying or not

0:52:32applying but it's been here for years who wants to do a project that we're interested in why would you preclude that I wouldn't no no because they haven't started it yet so you would Define the new project I you had talked about building per okay now I just wanted to make sure no no

0:52:47we're putting a restriction on we don't want to preclude businesses that are here and trying to revitalize no that's not what I'm trying to say is what I'm trying to say is that we wouldn't we wouldn't match somebody's expenditures from a year ago or six months ago

0:53:00however if they're if they let's say they started their expenditure six months ago and their permits still open um and it's a brewery and they want to get outdoor seating and they're out of funds for example um they they could conceivably say hey we're you know up to our eyeballs and we

0:53:20want to get you know we can't afford this three thousand dollars worth of seating the outdoor heating lamp or whatever so you know that but their permits open and they've yes they've expended their money over the last nine months I guess part of what I'm into about these potential projects

0:53:40do they have the think wherewithal to complete the project if we give them this money and how would we find that out uh I mean I think it's I think it's difficult to say I mean we don't have a requirement that they that they tell us that they give us prices for everything

0:54:03that they could possibly do what our main goal for this is to is to well I could use probably two examples in the case of someone coming in and saying we just want to do new signage and and that's going to cost ten thousand dollars so our requirement for that project would be we'll put in five

0:54:21thousand dollars and you put in five thousand dollars in the case of someone who's already been going through a project or have started a project and they they have their permits pill pulled and they're spending money then we could say well well we'll match that we'll put

0:54:34in twenty thousand dollars as long as you are in the process of spending twenty thousand or you've recently completed work for twenty thousand dollars um but the question I'm asking is um how do we know that if we give them this money in fact they will have a project

0:54:53that can open well that's why the loan it's a loan and it would not be forgiven and then we could go after getting the money back either directly or through I presumably on the property or I mean it's like any loan anyone would give so we only the loan only isn't paid back if

0:55:11it is successfully completed and to partially answer your question I think I mean the money that's going out is going to be for specific items so part of the Criterion we'll have for disbursement of the loan is they have to they have to give us their invoices they have to give

0:55:25us their their material to show that I'm asking a different question let's say that they do all of that but then they can't buy something else so they can't ever open um that's what I'm more concerned about um and um then they owe us the money then they owe us the money I guess that's that's the

0:55:48other thing I guess I would like to point out is this is not a lot of money no it isn't um so we don't want to over design the use of the money how I would think of it given that it's a small amount of money I I agree I just wanna this could be a precedent setting document though for

0:56:07future if there's money coming in we use it and although a hundred thousand dollars isn't a lot of money I I think it it will benefit businesses that are trying to put a lot a final touch or just an additional touch on their on their business um but I I agree with you 100 this

0:56:26hundred thousand dollars isn't a lot but if it if we get more money and this is used as the model then that's what I'm kind of concerned about actually not the money that I was referring to I was referring to the 10 or 20 000 that they could actually get that's not a very large amount of money

0:56:44so I'm a little bit concerned about putting too many requirements on that amount of money I think my so my last suggestion really is about trying to reward those businesses who have done those recent major improvements kind of you know on the order of magnitude if

0:57:00you're looking at somebody who hasn't done anything at all internal or external to their storefront that you know a business that has taken those steps within I think a certain threshold amount of time are then kind of we value that I guess over a project where you know it's a very you know I I

0:57:22guess yeah but you know this isn't a reward thing I mean if to be honest with you if this was better times I I don't know if I'd be for some of this stuff because I think a business should stand on its own however we're in a time where we need to assist people because we have

0:57:38a lot of storefronts that aren't there and I I would I understand what you're saying but I I would like to keep this as a uh an uh incentive program rather than a reward program and I would even answer that to be on an incentive program I mean I like to see when we expend public dollars

0:57:54that we're getting as much of a multiplier effect from a private from the private sector as possible so for every dollar we put in it would be it's great that they're going to put in a dollar which would be even better if they were putting in two three five dollars so

0:58:08I agree that it should not be that it should be viewed to SP as a means to Spur investment not just to say oh it's great that you put that in these are tough Economic Times we want to help you out and make sure that you can open I think that that's the place that we're

0:58:21in right now at this moment but I think in the coming you know quarters and Seasons we should definitely be looking towards leveraging private dollars rather than just looking for that one-to-one match that seems like a you know the least the least match that we

0:58:36can we should shoot for actually the the thing that uh that I like about this is it's going it will help a little bit with the seismic work now granted five ten or twenty thousand dollars is a lot of money but it could pay for an engineer's report it could pay for a few

0:58:53things like that and uh remember we did that program because of because of Public Safety and we're we were we're all concerned about that and so anything we can do to help that out uh in these times because that deadline is coming up and and we're still in we're still in that economic situation

0:59:13where you know it might be tough to do for some folks so so I guess I'm okay with not including additional language on prioritizing additional match given that it is a very small chunk but you know um and then we can kind of pilot it off of this initial kickoff and I was

0:59:32just going to say in terms of the amount of money the programs that I've had anything to do with usually require a match of like 11 or 20 not 100 percent so um I'm a little confused by your statement of wanting two or three what would be two or three hundred percent match I I was just thinking that

0:59:54the more the Merit the more the better yeah and I think what you're you're normally like when a city goes to get Federal funding you have to have at least 10 11 at the local level leveraging 90 at minimum right yeah but yeah this is the private this is a business that you know on normal time

1:00:14should be able to pay for its own signage so I guess with that I withdraw that suggestion but I appreciate the discussion and does anybody with anybody like anything I know what the um changes that we seem to agree upon were let me just see if I can straight that before making a motion on number

1:00:37three adding the words um for the um initial one hundred thousand dollars at the end and then on item 10 um it would be adding um 20 000 at the where it says twenty thousand dollars in loan funds would be available maximum per project it was slightly different but that your

1:01:14intent is correct it was uh to modify the twenty thousand that's there to to read ten thousand in loan funds will be available for a total of twenty thousand because the sentence does introduce the concept of an additional uh amount okay so I make a motion that includes

1:01:32the change that I initially said in the for the second one the change the councilman that uh board member Lyman just made yeah but before we second I'd like to just a little discussion because we did talk about going backwards and I I know that staff has some ideas that that they are

1:01:52going to use an existing project that's ongoing and their expenditures over the last couple of months it was very clear from testimony that that's their expectation um do we want to provide at least guidance if not uh written uh resolution modification specifying what type of pro

1:02:11existing projects are eligible for for participating I'd like to see us keep it simple and go with a date it could be the beginning of the fiscal year it could be uh from September 2010 whatever we feel that would be when they initiated the project in question yeah expenditures since that's what I

1:02:45think you're saying right if they've completed during that time I guess if they've completed during if they completed before the first of the fiscal year they wouldn't be eligible if their prog if their project was still going on entering this fiscal year then they would be eligible

1:03:05remember Hannan shaking his head what's that trying to get a Target point for micromanaging and if if the project if the project was completed before July 1st of last year which is the start of our fiscal year the start of where this money was budgeted then they would not be eligible

1:03:37if they are in the process now or have completed their project after July 1st and they would be eligible to apply whose judgments without knowing what prospective projects and I do I have to Echo that I think it's better to maybe not prescribe at this point and maybe get a check in with

1:04:01staff um after a few months to see what kind of level of applications are um yeah I just wouldn't worry that we'd without having some more data about where projects are currently that we would likely Target or liked would like to help we might be cutting people out without

1:04:21knowing it well then I I will make it known that when I read number two property owners and tenants are eligible for Loan program provided they are investing money into converting existing commercial buildings to a higher and better use for an improved new tenant

1:04:39means going forward not backwards and so if staff wants us to go backwards they better they better stand up and say hey can we go backwards because as far as I'm reading that that is going forward from this day on they have to be actively investing foreign I would propose just to throw out a time

1:05:02period um anyone that I've talked to has been has been spending funds um I think three months would be sufficient um I I don't think it was ever really the intent of the program to say that we would be counting money that you spent a year ago or or you know a while ago our

1:05:22intent really is to be able to capture money that they're they're currently spending whether they paid that bill 30 days ago or maybe they paid that bill 60 days or 90 days ago our intent is to be able to reimburse people for for an ongoing project that they're involved in

1:05:37now if that's the application that we get or a new project or a new project so I'm willing to second the motion on the floor with a friendly amendment of adding the words since or after sorry after January 1 2011 to the end of number two that's um that works for me as maker of the motion

1:06:03at the end of number two after it would say better higher and better use for a new approved new tenant after January 1st 2011.

1:06:14okay if stuff I think that's makes sense um so there's a second and all those in favor please say aye aye aye any episodes say aye any nose motion is uh resolution is unanimously unanimously passed okay so we can now move on to council assignments and liaison reports

1:06:49last agenda of the night anybody like to go first the only thing I would like to mention it's actually a future thing but I think it's of interest and um it could be coming our way and that's why I'm mentioning it and that's on the topic of hotlines I'm actually going to be going on a tour

1:07:12um soon to view a hot Lane project out in um I haven't seen it yet so I'm not totally sure it's out basically um I believe in these like San Ramon Livermore type area somewhere in there and where they've actually already implemented it so I wanted to use this opportunity to describe what a hotline

1:07:37does and what a hotline does uh or would do in our area which would be I-80 would be to take the HOV lane the um the lane where you have to have three cars during prescribed hours in a lane or other conditions in order to use that lane it would take that lane and sell

1:08:02time in that lane to those drivers who would like to purchase it and it would be uh not just particular it would not say be a dollar per car it would be dependent upon the traffic it would be dependent upon the time of day so it would be a flexible pricing plan

1:08:24and um so it's a thing that may be occurring in this area probably has a very high likeliness of occurring on I-80 and so I'm going out to look at it and I would like to give you a report when I get back but before I do that before I do that I'd like you to think about it

1:08:41and think about you know any questions you might have before I come back which would be at the next council meeting in May so okay yeah yeah I can I can build on that um can you find out if there's experience what experiences with regards to uh promoting single car use versus

1:09:04high occupancy use um because the purpose of it is um first of all it raises money so that's gonna be my second question the other purpose of it is is to move traffic right so so I guess my question is is there any evidence that it's increasing single occupancy use or I haven't gone

1:09:24on this tour yet right so as you go on this tour if you could pay attention to this question and the second question is um is there Revenue that comes back for the jurisdiction that the freeway goes through um that I don't know yet we don't it's not it's not set up for

1:09:41I-80 so we don't know and it could be set up differently in different places right so that's why I'm asking you to check on those two things and personally um I think it might be a good idea in on the I-80 Corridor that there be a jpa or some other uh Corridor Management Group

1:10:01set up to Define all those things in the corridor uh that would you know so it might be for example uh different cities in the corridor or it might be West County Alameda County you know we don't know yet how it would be because it doesn't exist but there are some documents being

1:10:20drawn up currently that would propose Management systems for that and we'll you may in order for that to happen it would have to come to this Council among others for approval so um anyway I just wanted to to pull your thoughts a little bit thank you I have nothing to report I have a really

1:10:45light load of meetings these last couple weeks report today no meeting since we last met myself as well right and so I I think the other the one thing I wanted to highlight people's attention to was a an interesting um Historic Society meeting coming up on May 4th at 7 pm it'll be held at the

1:11:13Chiang Mai or at Windrush school which used to be the Chiang May um orphanage for uh Chinese boys um over basically a 30-year period 800 young boys grew up going through that school actually I just learned as um as the event was being planned and uh great history speakers who actually were

1:11:37raised at the site are coming and there'll be a tour of the site and yeah just want to let people know it was interesting bit of Chinese history that I had no idea about and the reason why they had to be in orphanages was because of the Chinese Exclusion acts that prevented them from being adopted

1:11:54by local families so hmm um just wanted to share that and otherwise I think we're adjourned until our next meeting are which will be a special meeting this Saturday from nine to noon to finish up our Council mission statement and start talking about large big picture goals

1:12:20um the public is welcome to attend and it should be a interesting discussion to finish up what we started last time and after that our regular meeting April 18th is canceled the next meeting will be Monday May 2nd and we're adjourned until then thanks