Concurrent City Council and Redevelopment Agency Meeting January 17, 2012

0:00:01I'd like to call the uh like to call the regular meeting of the record city council and the Redevelopment agency meeting of Tuesday January 17 2012 to order like to the record to show that all members are present and prepared to do the city's business yes yes okay and I'd like to ask council

0:00:27member Abelson to lead us in the pledge congratulations flag States under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I think I'll start off Council and staff communication by indicating that the city council met in special session right before this meeting for the

0:01:05purpose of interviewing for committee and commission interviews and the council has made the following appointments Aurelia short Schultz for the citizens oversight committee Michael aronian and Eric Latrell for the Civil Service Commission and seeth cap Seth Kaplan for Parks and

0:01:28Recreation Commission thank you very much to those people congratulations and to our applicants that have interviewed with us okay any communication with the council uh thank you I'll just I just have one communication I wanted to remind folks that coming up on next Monday January

0:01:5023rd there's a important regional meeting and an opportunity for public to give input on the one Bay Area planning and this is one of a couple opportunities where a bag and MTC are are presenting potential future growth scenarios for the nine County Bay Area region and this meeting at the Richmond

0:02:09Richmond Civic Center will start at 6 pm and these meetings have been quite Lively and have attracted all all types of folks so it's really important that everybody if they're able to attend these sorts of meetings and give their Vision on what they think the Bay Area

0:02:24should grow like over the next coming decades oh I just wanted to thanks uh to council member benicity for mentioning that and um that to register ahead of time one Bay area.org if you can since um there's already overflow something like 200 people at each of these

0:02:45meetings signed up and um so to ensure your seat definitely uh RSVP ahead of time thanks yes I just wanted to mention that on Saturday February the 4th at 10 A.M at the Cerrito theater we're going to be having a movie spot called the new Metropolis sponsored by the Environmental Quality

0:03:11committee and the city of El Cerrito as well as other organizations and this is a really uh what I would almost call an amazing opportunity uh to find out about building a sustainable and healthy community in the in this age of global warming but it's also an opportunity to

0:03:33participate after the movie's over in a Workshop process that will be held at the Vietnamese restaurant a couple doors down and so I do encourage everyone to come if you want to RSVP you can call area code 510 two one five four three five zero or you can send an

0:04:03email to Green at CI dot e l Dash cerrito.ca.us and please do pre-register there is no charge thank you thank you Greg yeah I'd like to extend a big thank you to the human relations committee and the West Contra Costa Unified School District for the celebration yesterday

0:04:29celebrating Dr Martin Luther King Jr birthday it was a wonderful parade and the event at the high school in the new Auditorium was very very enjoyable and our police Chiefs presentation was very well received I did speak to some of the event organizers and and they are going

0:04:55to make the video of the of the event available for us so I'm looking forward to that seeing some of those portions again but I just want to extend a big thank you to the human Relations Committee um Pat I'm throwing a blank on her last names Durham Pat Durham and and uh the West

0:05:17Contra Costa Unified School District great and I just uh wanted to comment there was also on Saturday as part of the Martin Luther King uh celebration or the weekend it's a movie right here called uh Selma's Selma Lord Selma and uh what was interesting about that was that

0:05:38there was about 40 uh El Cerrito High School students in attendance and after the uh after the movie there was about a half hour discussion on on the movie and and what it represented it was real interesting to hear uh from people who weren't around when this tragedy

0:05:58happened and what it meant it also uh I think those that were there were very impressed with our young people and again another example that the Next Generation coming up is a good one uh they're good kids though I'm sure they'll turn into good adults and we look forward to them taking over the

0:06:22leadership of our communities at one of these days but anyway it was it was a very nice event there staff any communication okay could I have the city clerk announce the next agenda item please the next agenda item is oral Communications from the public the council's allotted three minutes per

0:06:47speaker and the first speaker is Paloma Pavel hello um my name is Dr Paloma Pavel and I'm a member of the Environmental Quality Committee of the city of El Cerrito and also in El Cerrito resident and I want to thank mayor Jones and all the council members for making this available this

0:07:15time my purpose today is to invite each of you to the new Metropolis event on Saturday February 4th council member um Janet Abelson already made reference to this but I'm here to extend a personal invitation to you and also to just fill you in a little bit about it

0:07:36and see if you have any questions and hope that as many of you as possible might be there um the we have about eight members of our Environmental Quality committee that will be present and they will be paired with elected officials and also with Community leaders to lead dialogue

0:07:57groups following the film and the purpose of the film is really to educate to inspire and also to activate our community here in El Cerrito about important opportunities within the larger region to be involved in sustainability and health any questions can you say the time on the on that test

0:08:21the doors open at 9 30 we're encouraging people to register in advance because we think it may fill up and then it starts promptly at 10 there will be the film and a panel and some discussion will end at 10 at 12 30 and then at 12 30 we'll go over to the Vietnamese restaurant and

0:08:42from 12 30 to 2 we'll be having these dialogue groups any other questions well thank you very much we really appreciate it look forward to it we also want to say that we're very excited with the response that we've been getting to this and we have um response from Senator Hancock

0:09:03assembly woman Nancy Skinner Senator de sonier will be with us and we hope as many members of the council as can make it will come and we're also excited about how this is helping us think about the um intersection of land use Health transportation and sustainability in our

0:09:25communities so how did you get all three of them to commit it at one event here pretty exciting well um actually this is a PBS series and we've been talking to them about it over many years as it's been being developed and also we've had the opportunity to be part of several programs that they've

0:09:46been offering and so at the at that opportunity we said and we hope you were coming to our event too oh good yeah okay well congratulations thank you your next speaker is Emily wood hi hi I'm Emily wood I live in Oakland um I'm just here to remind you and encourage you to pass a ban on Slaughter

0:10:15before the um uh code changes regarding what animals are permitted and El Cerrito goes into effect in April um we're watching El Cerrito closely I'm part of a group called Neighbors opposed to Backyard Slaughter that we started in Oakland in regards to some people

0:10:31lobbying the city to legalize Slaughter there where it's currently illegal um and just in doing the research around the slaughter that's going on in Oakland three minutes is not enough to tell you sort of the things we're seeing but it really all boils down to when animals

0:10:49are seen as a product rather than a pet rather than an animal with agendas and wants and needs and that's not just bad for the animals regardless of how you feel about Slaughter but it leads to Public Health and nuisance problems a lot of noise a lot of smell uh illness a

0:11:11lot of things that really you probably don't want in El Cerrito and I definitely don't want it in my backyard either thank you very much thank you no other speakers for General comment okay anybody before we get going here anybody in the audience okay thank you

0:11:28next uh agenda item please next item on the agenda is presentations there are none and following that adoption of the consent calendar items number 5A through 5G before we go any further the staff has requested that 5B be removed from the consent calendar there needs to be additional work on

0:11:51that and so that request has been granted thank you I'd like to move items 5A 5c through 5G while reading from item 5G which is a letter uh in support of State Bill 659 Padilla temporary postponement of disillusion of the Redevelopment agency I want to thank staff for preparing this

0:12:18letter um without extension successor agencies are responsible for winding down all assets properties contracts leases records once the dissolution process starts it will lead to lawsuits endless delays and ongoing conflict making it more difficult to develop a new job

0:12:37creation and Community revitalization programs in California thousands of jobs and vital Economic Development and affordable housing projects with will rely on Redevelopment we are committed to working with lawmakers to create a new program that is appropriately focused on job creation

0:12:57environmentally sustainable growth affordable housing and elimination of true blight and economic disparity but that solution will take time and we are asking them to delay the solution from February 1 to later this year second the motion moving seconded on the consent calendar

0:13:21all those in favor aye aye opposed motion carries thank you next item please next item is policy matters a joint city council and Redevelopment item actions related to the state dissolution of the Redevelopment agency thank you staff report please good evening mayor Jones and council

0:13:43members I'm Lori Trevino the Redevelopment manager we're here this evening to request certain actions related to the dissolution of the Redevelopment Agency on February 1st despite having opted into the state's alternative Redevelopment program that was provided for in ab27 in the fall

0:14:02we're back this evening to talk about dissolution of the agency because on December 29th the Supreme Court ruled that that alternative program is unconstitutional but upheld the constitutionality of um of dissolving Redevelopment agencies So currently the Redevelopment agency is in

0:14:19suspension through the end of January and on February 1st it will be dissolved and all of that agency's assets and funds and its functions will be transferred to a successor agency um which the city has elected to become in in the summer so we're still in the process of evaluating a lot of the

0:14:39implications of of what's happening and there are a lot of conflict conflicting information and some I think unintended consequences but we'll be back in the future to give you more information as it becomes available so attached to your staff report is an enforceable obligations payment schedule

0:14:58we're asking it that you amend it so that it is updated through the end of this year to cover any possibilities that we um that the successor agency needs to make payments and the timing of of these different reports that are due will make it difficult for those obligations to be

0:15:16paid um also we're asking that the city elect to retain the agency's housing functions and its assets again the legislation is written very broadly it's difficult to interpret um but by maintaining those functions it'll enable development of the housing properties that were already transferred

0:15:37to the city to be controlled locally rather than letting them go to the Housing Authority with the county and potentially to retain any funding that may come the city's way so if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them and um hilding mild housing program

0:15:54manager and our agency Council Karen Tiedeman are here as well thank you why don't we start with council member sure thank you Lori um just uh maybe one question so this is the second time we're seeing enforceable obligation payment schedule um but can we just go over kind of once

0:16:16again how it complies with the items that are listed in the state law regarding what is what are the categories of enforceable obligation payment schedules um and I'm not sure if you can answer that or if Karen can do that I might have to have Karen answer it but I'll

0:16:32try thank you just kind of going down the list I know that there there's a very discreet number of items that the state views as enforceable obligations and bonds are clearly the ones that are the most obvious that are that are included but kind of going further down the list uh

0:16:48particularly I'm looking at the lar one of the largest line items on the spreadsheet which is the municipal Services Corporation um operation agreement cooperation agreement thank you so so can we just discuss how how we view that that is an enforceable obligation

0:17:03it is a contract with a non-public agency that occurred prior to the Alum the elimination legislation being adopted and I think I'm going to ask Karen if if there's any more detail that needs to be noted kind of sum that up I mean enforceable obligations include any contractual

0:17:28obligations of the Redevelopment agency and so the agreements that are listed are agreements that were entered into before June 29th which is the effective date of ab26 perfect that's what I wanted to hear thank you yeah yeah oh no um the only question I have is on the

0:17:54resolution for the Redevelopment agency uh in the first whereas Clause the ordinance number 2006 hyphen 10.

0:18:03um was it passed on November 6 2006 or November 6 2007. it was 2006. thank you yeah so that we would need to make that modification part passing thank you thank you yeah I had a question um is the city liable for anything going on in the Redevelopment agency are we liable for

0:18:31for anything going on connected with the reason don't let Karen answer that one um so before the dissolution the city is not liable for the Redevelopment agency's debts they are separate legal entities so all of the bonded indebtedness is solely an obligation of

0:18:53the Redevelopment agency um once the Redevelopment agency is dissolved the successor agency does have liability but that liability is limited by the legislation to the amount of money that the successor agency receives from the county so the amount of money that was your former tax increment that

0:19:14is now considered property taxes that will be distributed to you that's the limit of your liability okay the amount of money if the Redevelopment agency didn't exist the city would get a certain percentage of the property tax in that area correct is that protected

0:19:35or is that quite possibly needed to pay off liabilities this is once the SE dissolved the there is basically a flow of funds as to how the money gets distributed and so the way the flow of funds works is that money will be distributed to the successor agency to pay the

0:20:06Redevelopment agency's debts and the administrative costs and there will also be funds distributed to the county to pay their administrative costs and then the remaining funds are distributed to all the taxing agencies in accordance with their property tax share

0:20:22so the city will be one of those agencies so the city will see that money but when you will see it will depend on the level of debt that the agency has so there may not be a lot of money to distribute in the initial years okay the same holds true for the county and

0:20:45the school district correct yes that's correct so if the school district's going to get any money out of this it's through the back end through the state sending the money back to the school district that they collect out of this deal collected by the state right all of this

0:21:04is going through the county and so ultimately what it will do is provide all of the taxing agencies with additional Revenue over time so the school district will see it that way as additional property tax revenue but your debts have to get paid the school district will continue to get its

0:21:25pass-through payment which it's currently getting well that's what I meant they'll get a pass-through payment but the city will not the city the city gets it gets two percent yeah so it will get its initial tier oh okay I just want to say the legislation has two different flow of funds and they are

0:21:45inconsistent so one of them has the pass-throughs coming first and one of them has the payments to the taxing agencies including the pastors coming after the debt and the two cannot be reconciled so we're not 100 sure how the county is going to treat those yeah I know and it

0:22:03probably wasn't a fair question because not everything has been flushed out so I appreciate and but it also shows the complexity or the mess however you want to take a look at this of this legislation and I know you've been you and your firm has been studying this

0:22:20since before The Supreme Court and there's there's still on Clarity there's still not Clarity on a number of issues so I really appreciate the effort but I think it also shows the people that this is this is far from being just a black and white cut and dry type of

0:22:38issue there are a lot of unanswered questions yeah and I'm going to ask you one more that okay you may may or may not probably may not be clear and maybe I'm looking at this wrong but the successor agency has been set up to administer the debt correct basically of the old

0:22:59agency but who really owns the assets and the liability I mean the successor agency is really it doesn't have anything and so I I'm the state ultimately ultimately is or is not responsible for these liabilities that they've thrusted upon happens on February 1st is all of the

0:23:30assets and liabilities of the Redevelopment agency transfer by operation of law to the city as the successor agency so the city as the successor agency will own all of those but then by operation of law you have the limited liability and also by operation of law there's

0:23:50only certain things you can do with those assets that are transferred to you so they're restricted by the legislation Okay so we basically are responsible for it but we have an oversight committee that is responsible for Distributing the assets that they don't own

0:24:14correct and you as the successor agency cannot do anything with those assets without the oversight committee's approval okay so it's another example of this convoluted thing all that's going on all through the state to save one billion dollars yes that would be the goal it was 1.7

0:24:36billion dollars which I'm not sure really will exist well that's what they say I I agree with you I don't think it's going to come near there at least in the short term but anyway that's here nor there thank you very much I appreciate the explanations I I have a

0:24:52follow-on question though as part of this dialogue I want to make sure that my understanding is that the assets um already are with the municipal Services Corporation and so on February 1 the only assets that would go to the uh successor agency is the housing development properties is that correct

0:25:09right the only assets that are going to transfer are those assets that are currently held by the Redevelopment agency so you transferred um all of your land to the municipal Services Corporation you already transferred the housing property to the city and the city is the

0:25:27successor housing agency will retain that property for affordable housing use so you don't have a lot to transfer on February 1st except your accounts I think that's it we don't but there's a lot of cities that aren't in our situation correct yeah thanks just as a

0:25:48clarification the Cerrito theater was also conveyed to the municipal Service Corporation there are a handful of small properties that remain that the agency holds title to which are really remnants of right-of-way and so those they're they're really have no value at this

0:26:05point one of them was a PG e substation or something like that actually was conveyed to the municipal Services Corporation that's part of the site next to the church right on the other side of the fire station um but there is a site that holds a Transformer and some little slivers of

0:26:21land down by the Kentucky Fried Chicken as well as in the Del Norte area around the donor day Place project great thank you very much thank you uh okay any other questions if not do we have any speakers on the uh on this item Jeff lichtelman Lichtman pardon me well I thought I was confused before I

0:26:49got here um I came here to express concern about what's going to happen to the Cerrito theater and it sounds to me like you're already working on it um but as long as I'm here um I just want to remind people that uh the Cerrito theater has been a real asset to the city it has sparked business

0:27:12development in in the area it's given the city a positive image people no longer think of El Cerrito simply as that place with all the uh fast food restaurants it has uh provided entertainment to people and it's given people a local meeting place and also uh it at least until now has

0:27:36preserved a historically valuable building and it's decorative elements including the art deco mural and fixture fixtures now I came here to express concern about what's going to happen to the theater because so far I hadn't seen anything in the news about it um and it sounds to me like and you can

0:27:55answer this question for me that this is already being taken care of that it's been transferred to the municipal Services Corporation which I assume is under your control and um if that's the case uh I believe that uh that people are interested in the theater will see this as very good news

0:28:15um because we were concerned that if the city were if the theater were to pass into private hands since it's not on any list of uh historic places that the owner could do anything with it that they wanted including paint everything over remodel the place throw out the old fixtures and so it sounds to

0:28:35me like the theater is in good hands thank you thank you before we go on uh since there is a lot of interest in that and has been can we reiterate a little more detail how we've tried to protect this asset so the Redevelopment agency transferred title to the Cerrito theater in March

0:29:00and it was done subject to um a performance deed of trust which said that the municipal Services Corporation would operate the theater as it was intended to be operated under the Redevelopment implementation plan so that was the way that we felt we could protect the theater for its long-term

0:29:18operation and it was transferred subject to the lease terms that are already in place with Rialto Cinemas and there's two and a half years left on the lease and they do have an option to extend for another five years okay is there any legal exposure on this um legal exposure in what way

0:29:43the way we may lose it inflation number to claw back Equity transfers that occurred between the Redevelopment agency and a public agency after January 1st 2011. the municipal Services Corporation is not a public agency it's a private non-profit that the council and others sit in the

0:30:09board of so we don't believe that it is subject to being clawed back that being said the controller may take a look at this and we will argue our case with the controller well thank you so we've done all we can we may have to answer to it but right now we're in good standing it appears at

0:30:29this point yes thank you very much anything else no other speakers no other speakers bring it back for discussion here anybody uh have any comments before we vote you know I would like to thank staff and Council for all of their excellent advice to us over the last year putting

0:30:54us in a position where we are actually as best protected as we can be so I do want to thank all of you for your really hard work over the last year I'd like to Echo that I think the rest of us would too yes thank you okay uh entertain a motion I can move a resolution of the El

0:31:15Cerrito Redevelopment agency approving and amending the enforceable obligation payment schedule pursuant to part 1.8 of the Redevelopment law with one modification in the first whereas Clause changing the last date from November 6 2007 to November 6 2006. the second the

0:31:34motion been moved and seconded on the motion all those in favor aye aye opposed motion carries thank you very much next item please um mayor I'm happy to also move the second resolution in that IR in that item if you'd like uh if I may I move a resolution of oh no

0:31:59problem I move a resolution of the city of El Cerrito to elect to retain the housing assets and functions previously performed by the El Cerrito Redevelopment agency pursuant to health and safety code section 34176 second moved in second discussion on the motion all those in favor

0:32:20aye opposed motion carries thank you very much welcome now next agenda item please Council assignments and liaison reports start with uh I'm happy to start um I'm I'm happy to begin my new liaison with the arts and culture commission tomorrow hopefully Parks and Rec shortly had

0:32:41thereafter but other than that I don't have anything to report since our last meeting thank you and you just heard about our latest events from the human relations commission um we had a great turnout and are excited to move on on planning further activities for the year

0:32:59and I'm also uh the financial Advisory board has scheduled a meeting for January 31st so look forward to being the liaison new liaison to that thank you just like to mention one item from the Environmental Quality committee they're looking at a model of showing films that are of interest

0:33:21for environmental reasons and they're actually thinking about doing a pilot and did in fact vote to do that in this room and there would be a couple of pilot films shown just to see how it works different times to kind of get a sense of when people might like to come

0:33:38so these would be free films no food no drink in this room and one on an evening night and one on a weekend and um so it'll be interesting to see you know whether or not people like that particular way of showing films and so I think the next ones the first one starts

0:34:01I think the one in March and one in April so I'll give you more information once we have it thank you yeah I'd like to let you guys all know about the waste West County Integrated Waste Management Authority uh meeting that uh alternative member alternative board member Jones

0:34:22and I uh attended um it was a workshop and I want to thank Garth for staff for joining us um at that Workshop it's a workshop where a facilitated Workshop where we were discussing the merits of what happens next when the current contracts expire on January 1 2014 so less than

0:34:49two years away the current uh integrated or integrated recycling recovery facility contract expires and we would be in a position where our recyclables will don't have a defined destination at this time on January 1st so this Workshop was to talk through what procurement process

0:35:17is the best procurement process for soliciting a vendor to provide us those services on January 1st 2014 and we also at that same meeting took up a discussion item in passed a awarding a contract to a consultant to help us with the pyramid process as you may recall we did discuss this a

0:35:42couple of months back and our guidance to the authority was to have an RFP to solicit services for our recycling handling or actually the authorities recycling handling because I our recycling actually is outside of this program our recycling in El Cerrito goes

0:36:02down to a transfer station in a processing facility in Oakland so but as part of the authority we um do do our participating member in the Authority's decisions um they elected to go with a statement of Interest process which is one where we will solicit interest from various

0:36:25vendors and then through negotiations with each vendor try and select a vendor that has the an Innovative as well as cost effective solution for processing the recyclables for the four other member cities um and that's that's really essentially what the workshop entailed and at this

0:36:50time there's no additional decisions for us to consider and we will um I'll continue to bring you back it should be an interesting process over the next nine months or so great thank you I just have two quick reports one is on the Contra Costa County mayor's conference the 19 City

0:37:14conference we meet once a week once a month and uh what is now I think would like I'd like to announce a new development the uh conference appointed a new executive director and it's Gary Courtney who's an El Cerrito resident as well as retired uh city manager from the city of Walnut

0:37:37Creek so um it's very nice to have one of our residents be the executive director at if nothing else we get the announcements first so that's that's pretty good and second of all uh the West County mayor's conference meets at the end of this month on Thursday so

0:37:57I'll be reporting on that out next it should be an interesting meeting with Redevelopment and some of the other Regional issues on on the agenda so thank you any other comments so with that I adjourn this meeting thank you