City Council Meeting February 6, 2012

0:00:00tonight I'd like to welcome you to the regular city council meeting of February 6th and if you could join me for the pledge allegiance to the foreign thank you I'd like the record to show that there's three of us tonight and council member venezini Bill Jones and

0:00:37Anne Chang thank you and to council members Lyman and Abelson are absent we do have a quorum tonight two votes will determine will constitute the majority for business tonight okay um I'd like to start off staff and Council communication by reporting that we did

0:01:04have a special meeting this evening at 6 30. for the purpose of in interviewing for commissions and we do have one appointment Mr Rick Murphy has been appointed to the finance Advisory Board tonight so congratulations to Rick thank you for applying any uh Communications between Council yeah so I

0:01:32just wanted to report unfortunately I I was at a national conference on called new partners for smart growth uh earlier or at the end of last week and got the fortune of meeting the mayor of Ventura who was talking about how he introduced Downtown parking in their in their Main

0:01:51Street and and that one of the great things that they didn't anticipate that came out of it was because the meter maids looked so official that they they were actually able to um you know increase the security and safety of the community as well as providing free Wi-Fi in downtown so I

0:02:07just wanted to share that it's a great interesting learning um also wanted to um uh I want to let people know there there will be a with the city of Richmond recently received a planning grant funding to do planning that will complement the San Pablo Avenue specific

0:02:27plan where we included San Pablo and MacArthur in our planning area and they'll be doing additional planning efforts so if folks especially elsewhere residents in the north end of town please look out for those meetings to participate coming up in the next month

0:02:43or so that was San Pablo and McDonald uh yes thank you yeah okay I'm all right I'm happy to go next just a couple of um announcements I'd like to talk about first I'd like to thank um the Environmental Quality committee for an event they put on last Saturday last Saturday they had almost 200

0:03:01participants in uh the showing of a movie called the new metropolis and many people stayed afterwards for a workshop to discuss um sort of how how communities can grow and how citizens can provide input on that growth so that was a very interesting event and I appreciate all

0:03:17the work they put into that I also want to announce an information open house meeting that's coming up on February 13th and this is put on by by Caltrans and WIC Tac and a number of other Transportation agencies in contrast County including the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and the goal of

0:03:34the open house is to discuss Interstate 80 congestion relief um just near and dear to our hearts I think so that open house will be held in the Richmond Memorial Auditorium at their civic center it is on February 13 which is Monday from 6 p.m to 9 pm one other uh announcement or I guess I

0:03:57just wanted to acknowledge I think all of our thoughts are with El Cerrito High School they recently had two students who were taken taken from us to Too Young um Jeremy Crowder and Tyler D Martini so I think we just all wanted to put out there that our thoughts are with the

0:04:13high school and I think we all want to make ourselves available for any support that they may need as they're kind of working through this this tragedy thank you Steph communication okay next agenda item please next agenda item is presentations and uh for a proclamation and recognition of

0:04:34Ernest iyama I didn't have any and we've uh we do have a speaker for that Don Del Colo well Ernie Yama was a member of the Conte Costa chapter of the Japanese American citizen Lake which meets at East Bay pre-methodist church on Potrero he'd been active in dealing with

0:05:13um every time there was something it had to do with your everyday man and people who tend to bury themselves in money he was always the man that worked towards the everyday man he wanted to see that they had representation he wanted to see if they had a chance to get up and speak and he

0:05:39encouraged that in the community for I'm almost ready to say countless years he was just over 99 when he died now his wife Jesu and many of his friends are right here we all knew him very well sorry to lose them but we need other people to fill his shoes a puppy take you know six pair of shoes to

0:06:06fill his so we I I admire the man very much he was he always stood up and spoke for the everyday person an example he was against turning the the San Francisco Bay Bridge into an all Chevrolet Diesel bus nonsense one we had a perfectly good key system going to which served the public very well

0:06:39and although he was a small voice in the middle of a hubbub and a Mealy many people knew and heard what he had to say and he just stood out amongst all other people in that regard and so it's really it's really great that the city of El Cerrito tends to want to honor him there

0:07:04are others so keep your ear Tunes because others will come along in a short while and feel his shoes thank you very much thank you very much appreciate your comments not to mention I'm done Nicole of Mel Sobrante current president of the Japanese American citizens League

0:07:26welcome to El Cerrito thank you next speaker please and and for General comment we have two more speakers um George McRae George McRae Federal General with the speakers on unless you'd like to proceed with the proclamation my name is Patty iyama I couldn't hear

0:07:52you so I'm one of his daughters and on behalf of the family I did want to say thank you so much to the El Cerrito City Council for for honoring my father in this way we are very proud of his accomplishments um he was he lived for a long time and he was in very many momentous events but he

0:08:18didn't wasn't just a witness he was also somebody who jumped right in and tried to change things for the better his major project was trying to get out the word about what had happened to the hundred and twenty thousand Japanese Americans who were put into concentration camps during World War II

0:08:37which is still not very well known especially outside of California and so he and my mother would go around speaking to various schools grammar schools and high schools and the University of California from Santa Cruz to Davis to Berkeley everywhere that they could to try to get the word out

0:08:59about what was happening and when the chance came for them to be part of a fight to get the government to officially apologize and to give token reparations to the Japanese Americans they both jumped in with both feet and really participated as best they could we were told when we first started this

0:09:21fight that there was no way that you could win that the U.S government would never budge on this question but through a lot of persistent effort and of course in the context of a whole series of other victories of the civil rights movement and the anti-vietnam war

0:09:36movement and other things going on at the time we were able to actually they they were able to get an official apology from the government and um and token reparations so one of the things that they wanted to make sure of was that this sort of thing would never happen again and I'm very

0:09:58proud of his accomplishments that he was able to stand up and fight for the things that he believed in to fight for social justice but we should take note of the fact that President Barack Obama on December 31st is signed into law the National Defense administrative act

0:10:15which now permits the army or well not just Army any military to arrest American citizens and hold them indefinitely without charges which is exactly what happened to the Japanese Americans so I think that the struggles will continue and we are very proud that my father's example is something that we

0:10:36can look to for the future as well as the past thank you thank you we're going to be having a formal presentation in a few minutes on this what I'd like to do though is take any other comments that are part of the consent calendar or not on the agenda tonight then I think we can move right into the

0:10:59presentation and we have one more one more speaker here my husband died at age 99 and he said has there's been a period of whole every period of activity uh every year every team is out all the time doing things for what he thought would be helpful to the people

0:11:23of the community and especially in terms of civil rights I think that one of the biggest contributions he made to El Cerrito would be apart from being one of the people who helped to develop the Early Child the uh helped to develop the El Cerrito human relations Commission because he felt

0:11:47very deeply about the need for having a place where people could bring up their worries or their situations and where people would be able to deal with it in a very a positive way he was active in so many different organizations he was 99 years old and when he died so you could

0:12:11imagine that in every phase of our history in the United States he was active in some position of making again his very important feelings about diversity about helping minorities and of speaking up in terms of legislation and in terms of acidic matters so I do

0:12:37want to say thank you so much for recognizing my husband and his work and the other thing I would like to point out that he felt his biggest contribution was going to speak in the schools especially in terms of younger children we talked to the people professors at tell Japanese American

0:12:57professors and they told us that you could make the biggest contribution in terms of American Life in terms of talking to the children and talking to the students in the high schools so that they would be much very much aware of civil liberties and the importance of standing up and helping

0:13:18people in terms of again civil civil rights so thank you very much for mentioning thank you thank you foreign [Applause] we have a proclamation tonight and I'm going to ask council member Chang who is the liaison to the Human Rights Commission to make the presentation

0:13:48thank you mayor and thank you to the city of El Cerrito particularly to the human relations commission member Gabriel Quinta who took the lead and really has been such an instrumental part of making this Proclamation happen and and I just wanted to speak to what

0:14:08an honor it is to be an Elsa readin I've been I grew up in El Cerrito since I was five and had the luxury of having many wonderful Japanese American Elementary School teachers piano teacher Mrs shimada to awesome Girl Scout Troop leader Causeway nakahara and so I've

0:14:28I've had this wonderful loving nurturing childhood and and I'm sure that has had a direct impact on me take feeling so comfortable and so welcome to to step up to a leadership role for my community I think it speaks volumes of the city of El Cerrito for such a great civil rights

0:14:49leader to call El Cerrito his residence for the last 50 years and it also speaks volumes to the the wonderful long-standing wonderful Japanese American businesses that we have that are really gems if you have not experienced them so with that I thank you thank you to Ernie Yama for his

0:15:11wonderful work and his tireless efforts it is true I was recently in Seattle at the the Pikes Place farmers market and there's a wonderful mural there and my my friends who I went with didn't know what you know I was so happy to see this mural celebrating spreading the history

0:15:28of Japanese Americans in such a prominent cultural location and amazingly you know some friends of mine didn't know had no idea what was determined how did and she happened to grow up in Ohio so you know it's just it's just a matter of um you know place and really important

0:15:43to to keep these stories at the top of our heads because we all benefit from from recognizing such heroic courageous leadership to to make things right and to to tell the story so thank you for that um and so if I can read off quickly the this proclamation in recognition of

0:16:04Ernest iyama for his contribution to the El Cerrito community and in the the world Community really whereas Ernest diyama was a resident of El Cerrito for over 50 years husband to chizu father of Patty Mark and Laura and attended the University of Berkeley and whereas in 1934 Mr Yama was one of the

0:16:24founding one of the founders of the Oakland chapter of the Japanese America American citizens league jacl and the nisei young Democrats of the Bay Area and whereas in 1942 along with more than a hundred and ten thousand Japanese Americans Mr Yama was ordered to Topaz

0:16:43Utah one of ten concentration camps in the United States and whereas Mr Yama returned to the Bay Area in 1956 supported the Civil Rights Movement protested against the war in Vietnam and joined the Contra Costa chapter of the Japanese American citizens league and

0:17:02later was elected president and whereas Ernest Yaman his wife chizu became active in the National Coalition for bridge redress and reparations Seeking Justice for the Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II and was one of seven who received reparations in

0:17:19Alameda County one of seven wow that's that's not a lot uh whereas in where where is Mr and Mrs Yama were also prominent in the National Japanese American Historic Society speaking for many years to schools in the El Cerrito community and universities throughout California about

0:17:38their internment during World War II they also spoke at many days of remembrance commemorating the day President Franklin D Roosevelt signed the order for the concentration camps and whereas in in 2009 Mr and Mrs Yama received the Clifford ueda peace and humanitarian award from the day of

0:17:57remembrance Consortium in honor of their lifetime activism and whereas Mr Yama served on the human Relations Committee for the Richmond Unified School District and on the ad hoc committee which later formed the human Relations Committee Commission of El Cerrito

0:18:16now therefore the city of El Cerrito does hereby recognize the significant contribution of Ernest siyama not only to the El Cerrito Community but to the Japanese community of the East Bay California in the world thank you [Applause] foreign thank you we're now going to go back to

0:19:32oral Communications was there any additional uh speakers yes for General comment there are two speaker slips um the first of which is George McRae mayor Jones city council good evening um not quite sure how to begin this I sent an email to all of you earlier today so

0:19:52you may have had an opportunity to read this um um it's sort of a Kismet story a couple of weeks ago the um several units of the El Cerrito Police Department showed up in my neighborhood to investigate a potential burglary it was actually very fascinating and a wonderful learning

0:20:10experience to see how they go about their their daily routine if you could call it routines it was it was very very impressed very very impressive our neighborhood has been plagued with a number of of uh home robberies recently as it turns out a very good friend of mine came to visit me that

0:20:29afternoon after the police had come and gone and it turns out that he's a forensic biologist and was discussing with me he works locally and he's actually the chief forensic investigator at the serological research institute in Richmond and um as a side note his work phone number

0:20:50and our home phone number are off by one digit so for the 16 years that we've lived in El Cerrito we've been Fielding calls for his business and I had no idea that he even worked there anyway so one thing led to another the getting to to the point um he's very willing to want

0:21:06to talk to the city and I've actually spoken with um our chief this evening she's very intrigued with the idea of doing DNA analysis of many of the break-ins and property crimes that have occurred in El Cerrito um he's has apparently some very good credentials he works with the United

0:21:25he's doing work with the United States Army as an example the City and County of San Francisco orange counties it's got very very good credentials and um I'm willing I will hand over some of this information his contact information to the chief as soon as I can um I think

0:21:43it he's very encouraged he says that they've had a 50 percent um success rate at with property crimes in particular with burglaries in uh identifying um uh individuals that were involved and um in particular sense many of the individuals or the possibility that many

0:22:02of the individuals involved in some of the home break-ins and property crimes are recidivists and have DNA already cataloged in the criminal justice system so this may be a very useful tool for El Cerrito and as Brian has pointed out to me Brian raxel has pointed out to me

0:22:19that it it tends to have a discouraging effect as well on um on people that would prey on a community if they know that a community is now using DNA to assess who may be responsible for some for some crime so there's a psychology legal deterrent as well so that's all I

0:22:38had to say and thank you for your time well thank you appreciate the efforts Al Miller good evening mayor Jones and the mini Council uh I want to make comments on two events or two items one I want to add some comments on the new Metropolis events that took place Saturday

0:23:01uh are exist our current Senator Mark dusonier was there uh our new Senator next year hopefully uh Lonnie Hancock was there our current assemblywoman Nancy Skinner was there and other dignitaries including three p our mayor and two other people from our Council uh

0:23:21Miss bencini and Janet Abelson the one comment I wanted to relate and it was in a patches article about it if you haven't read the patches article I encouraged you to because it's a great article and it's got a lot of details the one detail I wanted to give as much

0:23:39distribution as I could was part of the remarks that assemblywoman Skinner made when she was making her opening remarks she referred anecdotally to when I was walking into the theater with Mark Senator Di salnier uh I looked around and saw almost a standing room only crowd at 10 o'clock

0:24:02on a Saturday morning here to talk about transitorian development sustainability Etc and she said wow that's incredible and she said but then Mark said no that's just El Cerrito so it's kind of encouraging to know that our state senator has a very positive uh and knowing him that is a positive

0:24:25statement about El Cerrito and not a sarcastic other one but it was a great event uh everybody thanked everybody except nobody thanked the theater so I'm hoping someone important from the city maybe the mayor or the city manager or someone would formally acknowledge takai

0:24:43the wonderful contribution the theater made to that event the other item I wanted to mention is item 5D on the consent calendar the design contract for the greenway and while I'm aware that that contract only covers from Brighton up to Fairmont uh I want to use it as an opportunity to

0:25:07peddle an idea about the whole Greenway that's going to get rebuilt when Bart earthquake reconstruction is done over recent years more and more of the street Crossings of the greenway have had vegetation and other things growing closer and closer to the sidewalks and

0:25:28to the streets so approaching motorists go headed east or west have more and more restricted visibility of the bicyclists and the pedestrians and the scooters and the baby carriages being pushed out into the street so my request suggestion is is that whatever redesign

0:25:50of the greenway is taking place that special consideration be given to providing adequate View Lane angles uh that will maintain themselves naturally and not take a lot of Maintenance dollars to keep so provide the motorists the chance to see who they might be hopefully never about to hit thank you

0:26:13thank you any other can I ask are our speakers on here do you show our speakers around okay thank you all right next uh next agenda item please next agenda item is 4B presentation on residential animal Slaughter regulations thank you tonight oh thank you tonight we will be hearing ideas

0:26:47basically to summarize this there will be no action on this however the council will receive the presentation and public comment and then provide direction towards staff to finalize this portion of the animal ordinance so I'd like to do is first call have a staff make presentation the way we do

0:27:13this staff presentation Council can ask staff questions and then we'll get into the public comment part of it so Steph do you have any uh report thank you Mr Mayor um as you know there was a brief staff Report with a longer Memo from my office um and so and I don't want to

0:27:35um elaborate on those greatly but I will just sort of briefly run through a few points that um just wanted to highlight for you for your consideration as part of your discussion um as a council's aware um this process started in 2009 with the Environmental Quality committee and

0:27:52staff holding public meetings um to look at whether or not um there were amendments that could be made to the municipal code to um allow for limited raising of animals in the city for sustainable purposes and food production as a result of those there were amendments to the municipal

0:28:13code drafted they came to the council and the council adopted an ordinance on November 21st of last year that ordinance is going to be effective on April 1st later tonight you'll be considering fees for the administration of that ordinance which will go into effect on April 6th if approved by the

0:28:32council at the November 21st meeting um the council asked my me in my office to elaborate on the legal considerations and risks involved in choosing either to regulate or not regulate the residential Slaughter of animals as part of the changes to the code that the council had

0:28:52had approved um and um it amongst these the recommendations that had been included in the reports for the council basically said um that in conjunction with changes to um the city's uh nuisance abatement regulations um which were part of the ordinance that were adopted and cross-referenced the

0:29:15nuisance abatement provisions of the municipal code we believe that that the city had adequate tools available to address potential [Music] um public concerns about residential Slaughter of animals the council nevertheless asked that that we come back with additional information about

0:29:34the options and the existing legal framework that exists for um for this issue so um as I said earlier attached to the the staff report is a long memo outlining for the council what the legal framework is what the risks are of different um uh uh options for regulation which

0:29:57involve everything from the staff the previous staff recommendation of using the tools that are available and um the the Amendments that were adopted regarding nuisance abatement all the way to new regulations um to an outright ban um I do so with that background in place

0:30:18I just wanted to sort of um I think it's difficult to sort of discuss this in a purely legal framework so as part of the memo I also try to do what I could to assist the Council with sort of understanding at least from my perspective um the policy issues that were in

0:30:31tension in the different regulatory options in front of the council because that plays a part in in making decisions in light of the the also the legal framework that exists so just to briefly sort of run through what's included in the memo the ordinance as approved by the council

0:30:48was motivated in part by an effort to make it possible for residents to raise and keep animals for a number of reasons but including um consuming them and their their byproducts um so one issue that the council may want to consider in all of this is um you know what is what regulations

0:31:12with regard to the slaughter of animals is consistent with the purpose of the ordinance and I don't know that there's a necessary conclusion from that but it's something to consider um there are also um I think the council also needs to consider as it always does

0:31:29um what are the implications for um use of of City resources in terms of of cost efficiency and ethics of regulating animal Slaughter in residential situations so if there are concerns about noise waste potential pests smells typical things that that affect the Public Health and Welfare

0:31:50what is the most efficient and and cost effective and ethical means for the council to ensure that those issues are addressed um I think one of the issues that's also come up a number of times in this discussion is the fact that that an outright ban would potentially have

0:32:06incidental effects on religious practice because um the killing of animals is a recognized part of a number of um religious practices so while as outlined in the memo and I will discuss in a minute it is permissible it is constitutional under existing case law for the council to have a neutral ban on

0:32:29animal Slaughter that doesn't really answer the question of whether or not the council wants to have those incidental effects on religious practice so that's an additional consideration for the council to consider as a matter of policy and then finally and I will also address

0:32:43this as part of the sort of legal framework discussion um there are existing state law prohibitions on animal cruelty um that in combination with local um public nuisance prohibitions provide a fairly effective or potentially effective means of ensuring that the the

0:33:01raising keeping and killing of animals is not inhumane at least to one standard the standard that's defined in state law there is still no question about whether or not that's the standard that the council wants to maintain but if the council is concerned about ensuring that

0:33:15that the animals that are allowed to be kept in the city are not dealt with cruelly there there is state law that will that already applies in this situation so those are sort of the policy issues just then to go through the legal framework briefly that the council asked

0:33:31for as I mentioned um existing U.S Supreme Court case law provides that um a a a neutral law that has incidental effects on religious practice is can be constitutional and so it is I think a fair statement to say that that if the council decided that it wanted to just outright ban residential

0:33:54Slaughter of animals in the city that that would withstand judicial scrutiny in the face of a challenge that it was impermissibly restricting religious practice um however not that this is there is any record of this um regarding this issue but the city couldn't of course

0:34:12approve the ban with the intention of also restricting religious practice um but I I in terms of understanding the legal framework I think it's important for the council to understand that point additionally um in terms of the range of regulations that the council could approve and

0:34:28particularly if the council were interested in for example having a ban but then having an exception for religious practices this is where things begin to be complicated in terms of drafting of a defensible ordinance because the or the the regulations the prohibitions and the

0:34:44exceptions May neither be over inclusive nor under inclusive which is to say they can't restrict more activity than is necessary to achieve the government purpose that is underlying the regulations but at the same time it can't um regulate the same activity for different

0:35:01reasons um I think also that the council needs to understand and this is outlined and discussed in the memo um that um there's a federal law typically referred to as section 1983 that is often used in cases that involved alleged violations of civil rights it provides for tort-like damages

0:35:22for those violations as well as attorney's fees to the prevailing party so in the event that the council decided to enact a more complex set of regulations or a ban and there were a challenge and the party challenging it decided to couple the claim of unconstitutionality with a claim of

0:35:41violation of section 1983 the economics of the city's defense of that litigation are significantly different from from just the city having to pay its own legal fees to defend its own ordinance because if the city lost there would be the potential for the city having to pay

0:35:56damages to the prevailing party and pay the prevailing power raise attorney's fees which means that there's a significant financial risk to getting this wrong um think the last couple of things that I wanted to point out about the legal framework is that um that there's it's while it it would be

0:36:19possible to draft a set of regulations and and the staff and my office and the council could all work on it um there's that that would require a significant devotion of public resources to the matter in order to come up with an ordinance that we all believed achieved the policy goals of the council

0:36:33and was legally defensible and so I think the council needs to consider and this is not strictly a legal issue but um but but this is where sort of policy and law intersect is Council needs to think about um the staff and legal resources and the council's own attention that would be

0:36:52focused on this issue rather than other issues that are that are in the community and whether or not that's the best way the best allocation of those resources um so in some um having gone through a more elaborate analysis or actually I guess I would have to say having put into memo form

0:37:09the analysis that I in my office went through initially we continue to believe that that the state law that exists that that prohibits um animal cruelty which never which I should say does have an exception for killing animals for food so that it's important to understand that while

0:37:26there's a there's a there's a set of of regulations in state law that um prohibit animal cruelty the killing of the animal itself is accepted from that nevertheless at someone who is keeping animals cruelly or potentially someone who killed an animal in in a way

0:37:45that Rose to the level and met the definition of Cruelty and state law could nevertheless be prosecuted under that criminal prohibition but that those prohibitions in combination with the city's own nuisance abatement tools which were amended by the ordinance allowing the keeping of

0:38:01animals um uh to fit that situation I think um strike the right balance for ensuring that um there is a Prohibition on on cruelty toward animals on um um and ensuring that the public health risks and concerns and impacts that the council may be most concerned about can

0:38:26be addressed through the nuisance abatement tools and so you have a set of of means of addressing these concerns available without having to adopt additional regulations now if it turns out that once the law goes in once the ordinance goes into effect and we have

0:38:42some period of time of operating under it in which we find that those tools are not adequate we can revisit that issue of course but for now it seems to me that that the combination of state law and nuisance pavement was going to be adequate to address the concerns that

0:38:54had been raised to the council and that the council itself had raised in the past and with that I'm available for any questions that the council may have okay we'll start with the end sir I just have a quick question for staff about um whether or not there have been

0:39:08complaints by residents invoking the nuisance abatement for slaughtering of animals to date I mean knowing that we didn't have regulations in place or just has there been any history of problems with this type of issue no in in in um in the process leading up to

0:39:31um presenting the ordinance initially to the council and of course since then once this issue in particular was called out um we did look at it and found that there was no record of any complaint being made to the city um that animals were being were being killed on residential property at all

0:39:47and particularly not that they were being done in a way that was creating a public health hazard or risk or nuisance and also I'm curious how if we were to invoke a ban killing a slaughtering of animals how would something like a kid who has a pet snake that needs to

0:40:05be fed live mice or a kid you know pet lizard that needs to be fed live crickets I mean what's the line legally well I I I I think that um I I wouldn't worry too much about the defensibility of creating an exception if if the council's ultimate conclusion was we want to just have an outright ban

0:40:26on killing animals on residential property um I don't think that we that that including an exception for allowing people to feed those um the types of animals that you listed to other animals would be difficult it would be I don't know that would be the most complex

0:40:42thing to draft that exception or to defend it but I think that I mean in some ways it seems ludicrous I mean not that your question is but the issue like you know why would why would a city ever think to ban something like that right but that is actually what we would have

0:40:57to think about in the course of drafting that kind of ordinance because once you say let's ban it then you recognize that there is a fairly there's a fair amount of routine killing of animals already going on um just normal residential functioning so we would have to so to add on to that

0:41:13we get we would have to um actually articulate exceptions for live oysters live lobster any kind of seafood any anything like that as well or flushing of dead I mean like half dead goldfish pets as well um I'm serious I mean that's the kind of thing we'd have to think about in and

0:41:33enumerate right we might not have to list each one specifically but we would have to create categories of exception that would apply because in order to ensure that that somebody is not going to inadvertently violate the ban and when the set that was not the city's intention because I

0:41:51guess we're and it would essentially if you don't enumerate it if I'm just concerned that it could lead to a tool for neighbors that maybe don't get along with each other very well to invoke this upon each other and create basically leveraging a rule like that to to harm

0:42:08each other or you know no I I think that that would have to be a concern and as I say I think that that if the council's direction were to impose a ban we would need to think through at least categories of exceptions that would need to be created even setting aside the religious issue

0:42:25in order to sort of carve out what I think people consider to be sort of routine issues related to um keeping animals okay thank you that's my questions for now I just have one as a follow-up to what council member Chang was kind of driving towards can you just remind us sort of

0:42:43you know in the recent history elsewhere what is legal today in El Cerrito um just sort of what what can folks do and what could they have done even prior to this animal ordinance Drafting and enactment that we did recently what could they do and can they do today so

0:43:00previous to the ordinance um the the keeping of some animals was allowed and and some animals was um allowed with a use permit so to use one example um and I'm hoping I'm going to get this right but the the keeping of um let's say a chicken was on that was under a

0:43:20half pound was allowed over a half pound required a use permit um and the ordinance was simply silent as to issues of of killing any chickens that were allowed to be kept um and so we would have relied on nuisance abatement tools that are that were that are in the or in the municipal

0:43:39code and state law to deal with any issues um once the law goes into a once the new ordinance goes into effect what really changes is the number and types of animals that are allowed to be kept um with and without different types of permits but additionally there were as I

0:43:54mentioned there were amendments made to the municipal code as part of that ordinance to tailor um some of the definitions of public nuisance to fit what was now going to recognized as as permissible activity and again the thing that and so what those those would address would be again

0:44:11things like noise smells sanitation um the keeping of property in a way that that attracts pests those are things that the city would would use existing nuisance abatement tools to address and would have done before this ordinance went into effect additionally if there if the

0:44:30the city received a report of animal cruelty in violation of state law which is and these Provisions are in the penal code they are criminal acts it would have gone to the police department or to the district attorney in an appropriate investigation would have been made of

0:44:43whether or not a criminal law was being violated thank you that was the animal cruelty and how that would how that sort of enforces the next question I was going to ask so I appreciate you detailing that that's all I have for now okay uh excuse me to follow up on a

0:44:57question we had before we haven't received any complaints that we know of in the recent past but do we know of the killing of animals uh happening in El Cerrito for the consumption by the owner or for religious purposes I'm I'm doing a quick scan of of the other staff members who've been most

0:45:18involved in this and I believe that we I mean we don't have there's no formal it's not there's no formal besides my mom cooking crab at home I mean I think we can assume I think we can assume that that crab and lobster have been boiled in the in the limits of El Cerrito

0:45:33um but I don't believe that that I don't know that there is any um since we haven't received any complaints we're not aware of it having been done okay being that it wasn't against the law to begin with we could have known and just you know because it wasn't against the

0:45:52law there was no complaint but okay um the other thing what interests me was the um and you allude to it in a couple of situations of the carving out of particular [Music] instances such as religion or owner is it possible to ban the slaughter of animals and then

0:46:23provide waivers that people apply for waivers for these exceptions and the reason that for the waiver wouldn't be to whether we approve or not approve it would be to assure that whatever activity was taking place was done in accordance to the standards that we laid out noise smell that sort of

0:46:46thing the other question I have is um can we allow the slaughter of animals but put constraints on how this is done put on standards but also things like it can't be visible to the public or it can't be done in the front yard or whatever types of restriction we may feel is

0:47:11appropriate um so to answer the first take take those questions in order um could we could we impose a ban um have some sort of exception regime where somebody comes in and and let's say this hypothetically um has to submit um and this is referred to in the memo of

0:47:32um like basically a plan for how they're going to to go about this basically they describe you know the techniques that they'll use the sanitation methods what they'll do with the remains um the cleaned animal all those things and they need to obtain a permit from

0:47:47the city or some sort of authorization to proceed and maybe they do some sort of Master permit and we do a follow-up I think that that theoretically that kind of regulatory framework um could be drafted I mean I I don't want to create the impression that something like that could not be

0:48:07achieved I think it could um I think that um it is um it's going to take a fair amount of effort on the part of the staff my office committees and ultimately the city council to assure that we've appropriately constructed those rules one so that they reflect the policy that

0:48:32the council believes should be allowed you know should be in effect and that it is as maximally defensible as possible legally um I think I guess I I since I come back to you is that necessary I mean is it that's a lot of work to achieve something that the council may want the

0:48:51council may want in which case of course we will do the work but it's a lot of work to achieve something where um the concerns that may be driving the the the consideration of such a policy are already being addressed through other tools that are less intensive in

0:49:08terms of of development of a regulatory framework because it's already in place um but ultimately if that's but yes if the council wants to put that on the table I think we could accomplish it it's just going to take some time and effort and there is going to be risk

0:49:21involved um to turn that around because that was your second question could we um allow Slaughter um but um basically come up with a with a set of rules that have to be complied with for how it's supposed to be done I'd say the same the same it's the answer is essentially the same although

0:49:39I I I I think that um and this although this actually applies to both situations I I do want I don't want to over emphasize the religious issue because it just as the council has asked well has it has there been any complaints about um about Slaughter they're having

0:49:55they're you know there there isn't a great um cry in the community for um the practice of religion that that involves animal Slaughter by the same token so I I don't know that there's a great risk of this but the I just want to mention that in both those cases the more that you attempt to

0:50:12prescribe what are the permissible practices the more you have to ensure that um you have created the either the exceptions or the rules in a way that will um either not touch religion because if they're completely neutral or if those exceptions are going to include

0:50:33um some acknowledgment and attempt to provide exceptions for religious practices that you have then not creative either an over inclusive or under inclusive ordinance in the attempt to draft them so again there's complexity involved which creates risk um and and so as you know as your City

0:50:50attorney I have to impart sort of look to not only what is the policy but what are the implications of different approaches to to achieving the policy goals that the council may be interested in why I come back to thinking that the existing rules that are in place are

0:51:05actually adequate to address the concerns that have been raised well I think if we do go down that road I I think you would be able to handle that Wars very well thank you okay that's all I had for it you know so um I'd like to open it for public comment please

0:51:24yes we have approximately six speakers and I also have some Communications to hand out the first Speaker Valerie Snyder good evening my name is Valerie Snyder I'm a resident of El Cerrito I urge the council to ban animal Slaughter in El Cerrito I'm against animal Slaughter in the city

0:51:54for reasons of Sanitation and Public Health however I'm appalled that you're considering allowing it for reasons of religious expression your attorney discussed various policy interests and said the council can prioritize its po its policy interests I would like to propose that one of the

0:52:13council's priorities is not to kowtow to religious Fringe groups there are many many rituals that have been practiced in the name of religion some of these rituals Do no harm however animal sacrifice is not a harmless practice how far are you willing to go how far are you willing to

0:52:32go to defend violent and cruel types of religious expressive conduct has the council determined how many residents of El Cerrito would be affected by a ban is the council aware of any residents who practice on Sharia Muslims and Jews can purchase Halal and kosher meats locally so no one can argue

0:52:51that their religious freedoms are being denied by a ban in El Cerrito on animal Slaughter your attorney said that Council May lawfully restrict religious exercise he said that the city's staff can craft a defensible ban there does not appear to be any relevant case law that supports the practice of

0:53:11ritual animal Slaughter in a residential setting your attorney did not present any evidence to suggest that it would be difficult to defend the prohibition as a matter of fact he said it is not clear whether a pain plaintiff would succeed in challenging a city ban on animal

0:53:27Slaughter I fully support freedom of speech and the freedom to one's religious beliefs and practices I don't believe the state has the right to restrict religious expression as long as that expression does not deviate from the moral standards of society those moral standards include the Humane

0:53:47treatment of animals those moral standards take precedence over the rights of practitioners of ritual animal Slaughter please take a stand against cruelty don't wimp out because of the extremely remote chance of a legal challenge please be courageous and stand up for

0:54:05what's right Kitty Sharky good evening council members my name is Kitty Sharkey and I am an urban Homesteader in the city of Oakland and I've come here to talk about animal Slaughter in effort of full disclosure I do want to say that I am a member of the technical Advisory Group for the Oakland

0:54:37planning department when it comes to Urban agriculture I do not say that to imply in any way shape or form that I am speaking for the city of Oakland but only to allow you to know that they consider me to be a subject matter expert in this area I raise a variety of animals for

0:54:57consumption of both the animal itself as well as the bride products the reasons that I do this is that I do not want to support our industrialized food system you can find animal feedlots or a genetically modified materials I mean materials organisms including animals I think I should have a right to

0:55:19control what I put into my body and I also think I need to be able to make that affordable and the only way I can afford those kinds of foods is to raise it myself um I'd like to address some of the specific concerns that were called out for nuisances such as noise with animal

0:55:38Slaughter pests and sanitation because that's I believe where your concern should be um noise with animal Slaughter there is basically no noise I think it's um prudent to include in any ordinance that you have you know having it as you said out of public view but if it's done correctly there is no

0:56:04noise um pests control are already controlled through your vector control system with your current ordinances as our sanitation procedures if you're talking about in in this thing it says Blood and Bones we just passed Super Bowl weekend how many ribs and and chicken bones

0:56:23ended up in the municipal waste system that kind of material is already going in hopefully to the green bins and animal Slaughter is not going to increase that um as an urban Homesteader I have had both surprise visits from both animal control and vector control and I have passed

0:56:42both with flying colors um and again like I say the planning department has been out there it is possible to do it without any impact on your neighbors honestly if I wasn't open about the fact that I'm an urban Homesteader and I have animals in my backyard no one would

0:56:57probably even know within my neighborhood um it is much more Humane for me to slaughter the animals in my own yard they're raised in the backyard and I do my Slaughter in a side yard behind a six foot high fence the animals know that area they occasionally get to go in

0:57:15there they go there's no stress of Transportation no stress of unknown noises sights and sounds they go from being alive and happy in a um in a environment that they know to dead in a split second for me that's the most humane way to do it if I had to haul my animals out to

0:57:40another location it would be um very stressful on them excuse me could you three minutes is up could you uh wrap up no that's fine I just like to say that you know there's I I think the number of people that are doing this is a very very very very very small percentage and I don't think your

0:57:59percentages are going to increase drastically if you pass or if you do not enact a no band slot on Slaughter thank you very much next next speaker please yeah now what hello my name is Ian Elwood I'm a resident of Oakland as well many cities do not allow residents to slaughter

0:58:22animals either by de facto assumption that such activities are not taking place by preventing residents from keeping farm animals thus preventing them from being a part of an agricultural system that would slaughter them by designating the animals as pets thus preventing them from being

0:58:36slaughtered or by directly Banning a Slaughter of animals traditionally thought of as farm animals El Cerrito can avoid liability due to Residents thinking that they are somehow entitled to slaughter animals in their Care by using existing language crafted by other

0:58:50cities that do not allow residents to slaughter animals some examples are as follows please note that the below examples are not a comprehensive overview of cities that don't allow residents to kill animals that are generated by searching only the municipal codes that are available

0:59:04online and other other city codes can be found through public records requests so the first one and uh I'll just stop when my time runs out because it's a pretty big list is Merced California Merced California uses the language as such no person shall keep or maintain

0:59:24livestock or poultry for the purpose of Slaughter or for the use of any product associated with livestock or poultry and next is Oakland California it is unlawful for any person to establish or maintain any slaughterhouse to keep any hog to cure or keep hides skins or

0:59:40peltry so Slaughter cattle sheep or any other kind of animal to pursue maintain or carry on any other business or occupation offensive to the senses or prejudicial to the public health or Comfort within the limits of the city Rosemead California is very simple it

0:59:59just says simply no persons shall within the city willfully Slaughter or cause to be slaughtered any animal it's one sentence Chicago Illinois says no person shall own keep or otherwise possess or Slaughter any sheep goat pig cow or the young of such species poultry rabbit dog

1:00:17cat or any other animal intending to use such animal for food purposes and says chickens are okay as pets uh Corpus Christi Tech sorry Corpus Christi Texas says residents can raise chickens only for the purpose of eating their eggs Denver Colorado which is uh very well known in the urban

1:00:35homesteading movement just said simply among all their other Provisions in in the food producing uh animal ordinance it says one sentence slaughtering of animals is prohibited that's it um and there are a whole number of other number of uh cities but I'll stop there

1:00:53because it looks like I have a yellow light only when the red one comes on oh okay sorry um so Ann Arbor Michigan no person shall Slaughter any chickens Bloomington uh no person shall Slaughter any chickens as well um uh Cedar Rapids says no person shall Slaughter any chickens within the city

1:01:14of Cedar Rapids uh Colombia South Carolina says no person shell Slaughter any chickens on his premises uh Duluth Minnesota a new person self Slaughter any chickens within the city of Duluth okay so thank you thank you very much appreciate it Mike Bruno I don't know

1:01:37uh good evening mayor Jones Council I was here on November 21st with my friend in El Cerrito resident Judy Hardin and we spoke about this issue Judy wasn't able to make it here tonight um but thank you for revisiting the slaughter band I've read through the memo prepared by the City attorney and

1:01:55uh four out of five members of the council expressed an interest in adding a ban on Slaughter to the animal ordinance a councilmember Abelson uh specifically voiced concerns about children being subjected to the sights and sounds of Slaughter it's well within your right as the city

1:02:09council to pass an outright ban on residential Slaughter and I encourage you to do so this is going to be a little bit redundant after the city attorney's comments but um in the Hialeah majority opinion Justice Kennedy wrote that a law that is neutral and of General applicability need not be

1:02:24justified by a compelling governmental interest even if the law has the incidental effect of burdening a particular religious practice so I appreciate the caution taken in the memo but it overstates the risk of passing an outright ban on Slaughter that's something that you're completely within

1:02:40your right to do I could find no evidence that any of the dozens of U.S cities such as Chicago Milwaukee and Denver that have a ban on Slaughter have had to defend the constitutionality of their ban in court any legal challenges on religious grounds to an outright ban would be

1:02:55frivolous an outright ban on Slaughter also does not limit Free Speech the Stevens case that the memo cites about banning was about banning videos of animal cruelty not animal cruelty itself you're not Banning depictions of Slaughter you're Banning the actual Act

1:03:10of Slaughter Slaughter instructional videos or books on Slaughter could still be distributed within El Cerrito so this is not a free speech issue the Supreme Court is very clear that you have no legal obligation to write a religious exception to a neutrally crafted generally

1:03:26applicable law attempting to include a religious carve out may actually lead to the legal problems the memo describes on page seven an outright ban on Slaughter needs not be complicated and need not involve a massive amount of legal research the language could simply be as follows no

1:03:41persons will Slaughter any and then a list of the affected animals and Slaughter is actually an intentional act carried out by a person so that wouldn't cover feeding a rabbit to a snake but for instance you could say no person shall Slaughter any rabbit Pig goat

1:03:55sheep or other livestock chicken or fowl dog cat or non-feral rodent or lizard that's simple people could still eat crab they could eat lobster they could buy live fish at markets they could feed live animals to snakes they could still engage in pest control so this is really not a complicated

1:04:12issue violations of the slaughter ban could be processed on a complaint basis and would not be a burden to the city so again I encourage you to follow your original inclination and add an outright ban on residential Slaughter to the animal ordinance thank you thank you

1:04:30Jeanette Griffin hello my name is Jenna Griffin I am I live in Vallejo and I came to talk to you about the animal Slaughter issue I am a wildlife biologist and I've served as an agricultural biologist for the county of Humboldt for two years I'm also a gardener and I'm hoping that

1:04:59I will be an Urban Farmer in the future I have not had more than just foul but I would like to have the option of having goats um for milk and meat I am more concerned about the issues that are raised regarding the restrictions that animal Slaughter would put on me as an Urban Farmer on my

1:05:22ability to have safe food and good food quality and also raise my own food in an economic way I'm also a hunter education instructor for the State of California I have been for over two years and as a child I was raised hunting with my father and my grandfather

1:05:49and then later on with my mother and my stepmother as a child I went out with my father and we killed ducks in the field and he showed me the proper ways of processing the meat and I expressed an interest in learning about the organs of the animal and that in addition to my

1:06:11love of the outdoors has led me to choose my career path as a wildlife biologist so that um 20 years of my 33 years of hunting in my life has led me to have a deep reverence for the involvement of animals in my life and my family as well as others I have not experienced

1:06:34um trauma in the act of killing animals for food and um and a lot of the young young people that I have taught to hunt also I really enjoy that ability to go out in the outdoors and enjoy being part of that and I would like to say that I think that young people in

1:07:08today's world should know where their food comes from and I think that being able to have that component as part of their life is a valuable experience thank you Rachel hi my name is Rachel and I'm also an Urban Farmer in Vallejo and I'm in support of the recommendation

1:07:34as Urban Farmers my husband and I Rise raise a variety of livestock to meet our egg Dairy and meat needs those of us that raise our own animals are doing so because we no longer want to be a part of the industrialized agricultural machine that routinely abuses animals for the sake of the

1:07:51almighty dollar instead of thousands of animals being abused systematically for our sake we reduce that amount to Zero by raising our own we cannot afford to live in a rural area that is close to our work so we have to make do with living in the city the cost of humanely raised meat eggs

1:08:09and dairy is far too high for many of us so raising our own is really our only option for humanely raised eggs dairy and meat because we raise our own we also eat a lot less meat now compared to before we started raising our own animals we honor the animals that gave us their

1:08:25life so as to nourish us I find this attitude towards backyard livestock to be quite common among those in our community we feel we have a responsibility to be active players in sustainable food movement even if we cannot afford to the high cost of it as a community Urban farmers and

1:08:42homesteaders do not condone nor support animal cruelty in any form we speak out against those that don't care for their animals or treat them with the utmost utmost respect we help educate those that need it and offer our support to those that ask for it there's a very small yet vocal animal

1:08:58rights activist group that is trying to use the government to try and dictate people's diets they hope that by Banning our ability to raise livestock for personal use that they will force us to give up all animal products because they know we don't want to buy into factory farming but can't

1:09:12afford the alternative they spread misinformation about livestocks and urban farmers to try and convince local governments to make these laws without having any practical experience with animals the fact of the matter is there's nothing inherent about the country that

1:09:30makes Slaughter me more Humane than slaughter in someone's backyard thank you thank you Emily wood hi my name is Emily Corwin and I'm currently the chair of the El Cerrito Environmental Quality committee and today I'm here speaking on behalf of myself not of the full eqc so

1:09:58um I respect the the views and the opinions we've heard from the people today who support Banning backyard Slaughter of animals and I'm grateful for the debate um I really hope we've heard from a lot of different people from around the bay area today and I hope that you guys give

1:10:16some real weight to the voice of else readings I personally think that this should be a choice of residents who own small animals whether or not they choose to keep their animals for the duration of their lives and not kill them their chickens I'm going to speak in terms of

1:10:34chickens here so just to keep the chickens for their eggs or if they decide that they they want to harvest the chickens kill the slaughter the chickens for their meat so um I think that it's a choice that each ulcerating can make and that they we need to trust them to do it in a

1:10:54respectful way for the animal for the neighbors for their for their own family and also to not create a public nuisance and in a way that doesn't hurt the health and I guess the hygiene concerns so um I also think that banning the the backyard splatter of animals is also

1:11:17against the spirit of the small animal ordinance revision which was really to create a more sustainable community and enhance our consciousness of where our food is coming from um based on the comments that the City attorney gave today I do not think that if this would be a good use of City

1:11:39resources and City dollars to appropriately craft a modification to the revision to ban small animal Slaughter and I would rather see those dollars spent elsewhere honestly I agree that I think this is a relatively small percentage of residents in El Cerrito who have backyard animals and will make

1:12:03the choice to harvest them for their meat um so I really think that we need to trust our residents to do this in a respectful and in a safe in a safe so I appreciate your your debate and your consideration of this matter so thank you thank you Emily wood I'm also Emily Emily wood

1:12:29um and I live in Oakland um I wanted to say that in my regular life but I'm an environmental scientist that's what I do for a job and there's been plenty of writing saying that meat from backyards is not sustainable it's not local it's not environmental it's not like growing tomatoes the inputs are

1:12:48much greater than the outputs um but that's not what I stood up to say what I stood up to say I think is applicable to your questions that there haven't been a lot of these animals in El Cerrito so you haven't seen a lot of problems we have a lot of them in Oakland and we have a lot of problems

1:13:04um every single um farm farm Slaughter hobbyists that I've heard of everybody who has a book or a blog or writes on a forum has had some sort of animal cruelty problem or some some sort of problem with their neighbors most likely both um like the person who had pigs in their

1:13:27backyard and was feeding them fish out of the dumpster and made the little girl next door violently ill or the person who had rabbits that suffered from heat stroke and died in their backyard totally preventable totally painful totally ridiculous um somebody keeping ducklings in a

1:13:46gutted car that rats got in and ate all the ducklings that's why every local wildlife rescue has has asked written to the city of Oakland and asked them to keep the slaughter illegal um what else I've talked to Neighbors in tears they've found a rabbit in their

1:14:06backyard they don't want to give it back because they know what gonna happen to it they don't want to be responsible for that they can't it's Outsourcing guilt to your neighbors they can't complain because they know you'll kill that that noisy turkey and also who wants to go against the

1:14:21person who knows how to use a hatchet like people don't want to report their neighbors even if they know how and people don't really know the routes to go to call Animal Control to call City Planning um and I've seen Animal Control Officers I volunteer at some Municipal shelters and

1:14:39some with some um farmed animal and rabbit rescue groups and I've seen Animal Control Officers come back from the field having seen things that are just horrific Animal Control Officers big Burly men in uniforms with guns in tears it wasn't quite illegal enough to do anything

1:14:58about but they don't feel at peace with their conscience leaving the animals in those places and so I think this the simplest thing for our sense of community is to just have a band nobody's doing it now you're not taking anybody's right away um and everybody's including the animals

1:15:17is happier thank you thank you next week speaker that's speaker Esperanza Pelon a good evening my name is Esperanza polana I'm the co-organizer of the East Bay Urban agriculture Alliance our membership includes El Cerrito residents as well as other residents around the East Bay

1:15:43I personally keep an urban farm including raising and processing my own animals for food in Oakland I turned to raising my own food producing animals out of concerns uh for toxics toxins I was being exposed to and the horrendous practices of factory farms my family's always raised animals

1:16:01in the city I decided to rely on my ancestral knowledge of how to grow and raise my own food my practices are part of my cultural heritage and they enable me to access affordable healthy food that's been raised humanely I know I'm not alone the 4-H club of the United States was established in 1902

1:16:19the barrier is home to 52 4-H clubs they're flourishing and city kids raising rabbits Lambs goats chickens and turkeys some of these animals destined for dinner tables while my own practice is cultural Muslim Jewish and Santeria religious communities practice raising

1:16:38slaughtering and consuming animals to satisfy their specific requirements which are based on hundreds of years of tradition and legal scholarship there are cities that do allow home-based processing such as San Francisco California Portland Oregon Cleveland Ohio in none of these cities

1:16:55has there been an increase in complaints or city regulations DePaul University conducted a study to this effect um you can also look to those cities for model ordinance the Oakland Animal Shelter director Megan Webb was recently quoted saying I've asked several of my Animal Control

1:17:12Officers and they don't feel that like they're seeing more livestock type animals in the field are being impounded in the shelter so in essence there are no records there are no public records there of or City Records uh of that would back the exaggerated claims that we've heard this

1:17:31evening I think this addresses the bogus concern of burdening city services and I think what you're hearing tonight about unnecessary suffering and the like are dog whistles for folks who are morally opposed to eating meat in the first place this is a ruse to use city

1:17:45government as a blunt tool for another debate whether animals are food it's inappropriate and it's an infringement on basic rights thank you thank you no other speakers bear no other is there anybody else who'd like to speak before we close okay we'll bring it back to the council

1:18:03and as I said before we're here to provide direction to staff so we won't be taking any formal action on a uh ordinance at this time yeah so um very really appreciate everybody's time on this but I um personally I am an environmental biologist as well in conservation biology did a lot of work

1:18:27in sustainable farming um and I believe one of the primary intents of the animal ordinance was to address sustainability self-sufficiency and although I think I was open to hearing more information about the process around the ban um I I honestly feel like we you know in

1:18:51light of Redevelopment going away we've got major Financial crises on the horizon I we've got a lot of Economic Development work to do we have a very small but very talented staff that is just with each active state government getting more and more burdened with lots of

1:19:10responsibilities that honestly I feel like I would prefer our staff to spend time on things that would make us more prosperous as a community to you know work on things that are going to address Community safety of getting around to you know addressing many of the

1:19:32communities that we have today and anything that essentially continues to to support our economic uh vibrancy and I believe we have a lot of work to do there we've done a lot of great work and um and I and having heard no prior uh complaints um and honestly also believing in

1:19:55um the common sense and practicality of our El Cerrito residents um I I don't believe that we need to go out of our way to craft a ban I honestly believe that the the codes in place by the state to address cruelty should be sufficient and you know I I'm just imagining all the time that it would

1:20:16take to go and enumerate one after another and just you know and and going back to what was the purpose of of updating this code it was to create local food sources um and and I don't I believe we're we're going backwards on what our purpose uh originally was by

1:20:38going through with the a band so that's where I am today and that's where I would advise staff I'm happy I'm happy to go next um thank you so much for coming out um and providing your commentary I can't stress how important it is for us to hear from everybody um particularly on issues there are some

1:20:58issues that we're all extremely well versed on but this is a new and emerging issue I think it this is part of the way that we learn about these things in addition to emails and discussions we have with residents but it's really important I think for people to come to

1:21:11these so thank you very much for your comments and thank you to staff for a really excellent presentation and really giving us the ins and outs of all the different choices we have in front of us for me I was on the eqc when the animals ordinance was first being discussed and

1:21:26in my mind its goal was to expand choices in addition to many of the other goals one of the goals was if you live in a certain part of the country we're lucky enough to live in one of them you may have a choice of um of course you have your Supermarket choice where you can buy meat and buy

1:21:46animal byproducts um not knowing or maybe knowing too well what how they got to be in the in the grocery store you can also go and find a farmer who actually there are some you know within our Bay Area Sonoma County and other areas you can actually contract directly with a farmer and

1:22:03perhaps feel and and know a little bit more about the animal byproduct that you're going to consume and that that may that would bring a lot of psychic benefit to you and potentially more welfare to the animal but with the animals ordinance we wanted to add or in

1:22:17my mind we wanted to add a third choice and that was to not just pay somebody who you thought would treat the animals well but to actually have the opportunity to um to cultivate those animals yourself and to get whatever psychic benefit you get from that but also to be able to

1:22:36consume an animal by product that you're confident in what what you're what you're consuming um so that was the original intent of the ordinance and we went through two and a half at least two and a half years of being really deliberative in balancing balancing expanding that

1:22:53choice for residents with not wanting to impinge on other residents who were extremely concerned about um the the noise the smells the sorts of nuisances that may come up with that expansion of the choice and I feel like we took that time and put a lot of effort into it and it came up with a

1:23:11really good balance so at this so when this idea for a ban was brought up I felt like that was a time when we would really be taking away a choice and it's not as we we do that sometimes as a community we decide to take away a choice but there has to be a really good

1:23:27reason to take away a choice and in my mind the the arguments that have been brought up have related primarily to neighbor complaints if you allow able to slaughter animals you're going to come up with a lot of neighbor complaints and animal welfare and in my mind those two

1:23:44reasons I think we can address very well our City attorney has spoken kind of at length about existing animal cruelty laws that are in place and our nuisance ordinances that are being strengthened and and I don't know how how other communities work in particular but I

1:24:01know in our community people are willing and able to contact the appropriate authorities when there are complaints and our city Prides itself in being extremely responsive I've I have you know I had my license plate stolen and I had a police officer there in one hour so we when we get service

1:24:19calls we take them seriously and we want to maintain a harmonious community so in my mind our nuisance ordinances in the state's animal cruelty laws which have criminal penalties are um are are two two things that we have in place the other reason that has been

1:24:36brought up is is a is I think a very heartfelt and um serious concern for Animal Welfare um I I would say that there is a strong argument to be made that an animal that may grow up and that may have a life in a backyard that is um slaughtered by potentially an amateur

1:24:55compared with an animal who is brought up in a more industrial Farm type of setting there's there's a good argument to be made that that um allowing somebody to replace that chicken or whatever animal it were with a backyard as opposed to an agricultural industrial sort of

1:25:14um animal's life they have a there's a good argument to be made there um I guess I I I wanted to just just add I think this there was a great line in one of Michael Collins I think is Omnivore's Dilemma about opening about if we just put glass walls and glass walls and all

1:25:31of our slaughterhouses we would um treat we would either eat less meat or we'd treat our our animals that are we want to process a lot differently and I thought it made me think that just you know my grandparents just a very short generation ago my grandparents from they

1:25:47lived in San Francisco and Oakland and even just at that time they would they would Slaughter animals when there were sort of big family events and it wasn't that long ago that it wasn't that atypical for this type of thing to occur occur even in a very Urban setting

1:26:03um so I know I've gone on and on a bit but I wanted to just take this time to kind of lay out my thinking on this and and based on the fact that I think we are we want to expand a choice here um and and kind of and kind of let let our community try this out um my my main direction to staff is to

1:26:21not explore this ban any further but of course we'll all I think continue to keep our eyes and ears to the community and we'll look to our residents to keep us abreast of any sorts of any sorts of problems that are going to come come about from this if there are any or

1:26:36we'll also look to hear from for some great success stories if there are sort of community building that comes out of this um so that's sort of my direction is that in the coming year into year or two we'll be looking to see how this is being implemented uh once we finalize

1:26:51the animal ordinance fees so thank you for listening okay thanks um before we give direction here I like to make some comments uh I guess what I'm torn from is is a couple things um one is animals are food source and I think that's been expressed by both Ann and and Rebecca council member uh Chan

1:27:16and benazini uh but we also live we don't live on Farmland we don't live out we live in um a metropolitan setting uh we have neighbors and so there are many areas outside of this area that we put limits on [Music] actions with our residents that would accommodate and make sure that other

1:27:45residents aren't bothered we have noise uh we have zoning laws that sort of thing because we live closer together than being out on a on a farm so um I'm concerned with uh primarily the the idea that are not I think there should be standards if we're going to allow there

1:28:11must be standards up to and including defining where we're going to allow the slaughtering I don't think it should be just anywhere I don't think you should be able to slaughter out in front of your house for instance and nobody here today by the way said that do that

1:28:29um I don't I don't think we should impose the ACT a Slaughter on our residents on our neighbors if they don't want it um so if we are going to allow it I would certainly say that we set up standards by which it has to be out of the uh site and Noise of of our neighbors

1:28:54um just like we have noise ordinances um Banning loud musics that infringe upon our neighbors um I know councilman Abelson isn't here but she publicly stated she was worried about children seeing this type of activity that's going on that was one of her concerns

1:29:18I you know I could go either way to be honest I could go either way on this there is not a lot of complaints we haven't heard that that we know of or that any testimony that we actually have any religions that does practice the slaughter and sacrifice of animals even for food so I

1:29:37I don't I don't know um we do have a good we we do have I think a good regulation in place it's been in place for a long time if we take the position that we don't need a band that's what we have now I guess my main issue is that even prior to having an animal ordinance

1:30:01people you know we are taking away something that was an action that was basically allowed that anybody could go buy a chicken from the farm and bring it home and have it and Slaughter it for food and so I feel like that's a total it's just a totally different issue than the ant tying it to

1:30:22the animal ordinance and I'm happy to I would prefer to see the animal ordinance move forward and if we find there is a bump in you know complaints or concerns then you know then we can address it as it comes up but until then I don't feel like you know it's it's always been

1:30:40allowed until now okay that doesn't mean that doesn't mean like people change it we do we change a lot of things um and update things that may not have happened in the past but have a potential of going forward so it's not out of the question just because we didn't have it that we suddenly can't

1:30:58have it but it is it is a real opportunity cost in terms of Staff time and and I've I'm so I that's where I I feel like it's we have a lot we haven't finished the San Pablo Avenue specific plan we've got you know potentially Community Gardens in the works along

1:31:17Ohlone Greenway I mean there's just I guess I feel like until it proves to be an issue that we to me the cost and effort of going through and putting a ban should we want to do that is secondary to whether we need a ban or we don't need a ban the fact that whatever we do let me whatever we do is

1:31:41going to cost you we still have to craft the uh the ordinance whether we have a ban or not that's going to cost us money it's completed the ordinance is completed so I would rather spend the money and get it right done the first time so we don't have to send the money in the future if

1:32:02that's the way we're going to go I don't buy the fact that it's going to cost time and it's going to cost money if the cause is right we do it if it isn't we don't do it and that's what we're here for so let's just concentrate on whether we're going to have a ban or we're not

1:32:17going to have a ban okay I've said my piece so uh what direction do you want to go we have two council members that aren't here they can review this meeting they can review the testimony they can give input but we need to give staff some direction tonight um just just a quick question to staff

1:32:36can you just review for us one more time uh sort of the quick Direction you're looking for to be clear we can either or can you make us make it clear for us are we we can direct you to take one of these four different Alternatives you per you've provided devise a ban regulate Slaughter but

1:32:56don't ban it can you just kind of go through one more time what the type of direction is that you're looking for from us sure I'd be happy to um I mean there may be other um other directions but as outlined in the memo I think that that basically you could direct us to go out and craft a

1:33:12ban and we will attempt to come up with one um that addresses the concerns that we've heard from the council that also is defensible and um you could direct us to develop some form of Regulation and that could either be one where it's banned but allowed under some circumstances or one where

1:33:36it's allowed um but some but there are carve outs for certain things that are prohibited um and then third I may be overlooking one but um we could go with what what it basically the basically do nothing on this issue I mean as it is right now um the the or the municipal code just

1:33:55neither says that it's allowed nor does it say that it's prohibited but as I've said state law prohibits animal cruelty on the municipal code already addresses issues um that can be that can be regulated through nuisance abatement and so if issues arise we have tools

1:34:11available to address those and we have recent tools that were adopted when we adopted the animals ordinance that strengthened our nuisance language is that correct that's correct okay um so mayor may I okay so the direction that I'd like to provide or in my opinion at this point is that staff

1:34:30should not do any more work with regard to exploring a ban on Slaughter or regulating Slaughter at this point my preference is to let the animal ordinance which goes into effect on April 1st uh April 6th okay when the animal ordinance goes into effect on April 6th my preference is to

1:34:53you know like like any like any time we enact a new ordinance I would assume we take a look at how it's being implemented and and we have an opportunity to revisit it if necessary so my preference is to have staff do nothing more on the ban at this point and to wait maybe we'll plan to have a

1:35:11check-in session in 12 months or 24 months once we see how the permitting is is going and at that point we can also revisit any complaints we're getting or any nuisance abatement actions we've been asked to take yeah I think I would I've been clear but I just to reiterate

1:35:33um I would advise staff to um yeah no do no further work on Crafting any bands on Slaughter or any regulations on Slaughter okay and I would be um for the carving out the exceptions to a ban so I don't um so we've given Direction uh it's clear from the three well the

1:36:04directions clear from the this was not this is not enough it's clear that that um the the the majority of the Quorum of tonight's meeting prefers that no action be taken that we basically let the ordinance go into effect we see how things go and then if there are issues I

1:36:20mean I think of course the staff would be responsive to if if we find out that that once the ordinance is in effect that there are problems we would raise it to the council ourselves but we could certainly schedule you know an updated status report either written or to the

1:36:36or presentation to the council in 12 or 24 months um and you know and and basically give the council more information at that time well I get I have a procedural question we weren't supposed to vote on anything tonight but give direction so how's that fit into well the council's original direction

1:37:04from its meeting in November was come back with a report essentially you've received the report you've had your discussion about it and since there isn't um there isn't a majority of the council that's interested in pursuing any form of of regulatory framework I think we

1:37:21would just basically I would take from that that we would go ahead and let the ordinance go into effect and begin implementing it had a different question that I'm not addressing yeah you just said the majority of the council we didn't have a vote we can't have a vote it wasn't

1:37:40agendasized we were to give direction so I guess we're giving you Direction on consensus or what yeah I mean I think satisfies it satisfies the brown act and what we're supposed to be doing along those lines that's my only question yes I don't want it to come back on a technicality no no

1:37:59this is consistent with the Browner all right that's it thank you very much for the uh input and we'll go on to the next agenda item please next attempt item is adoption of the consent calendar items number 5A through 5e comment or if I can make just one comment um just because Mr Miller

1:38:22brought it up on item uh sorry the Ohlone Greenway item 5D I did want to note um that that design process is scheduled to be in time the idea is to schedule the design process such that the construction would take place once the BART retrofit that's taking that's going

1:38:44on in that location is completed then they could begin the greenway improvements and that there is an opportunity for there will be two public sessions for input um so I'd like to invite everybody to come to those I believe the first one is going to be scheduled for March sometime

1:38:59in the early to mid-march time period so if you're interested in the Ohlone Greenway design process for that section of the city um you'll have an opportunity to give input at least two times first time in March and I just want to comment real quick I um for it's it's buried in the staff

1:39:15report but just a reminder that our awesome staff has um you know this grant is is six hundred thousand dollars in all and that we as the city of El Cerrito were one of 20 or one out of 23 awarded out of 114 Statewide who applied for this Grant and this is the type of awesome work that I

1:39:36think I would you know you know planning department is involved Transportation all of these things and so um you know there's really other great things to be working on like this so thanks to staff for for winning that yeah I would just like to say as usual as we do a lot when we do get a grant

1:39:57it's money that's coming back into the uh into the community to be spent within the community so it's part of the money that goes out of this city that comes back into it and we've had great luck um almost three miles of median strip that we see on San Pablo Avenue

1:40:18or rain Gardens that we uh where a demonstration project for and very successful that type of thing is is what we do and uh we've been very to the credit of Staff we've been very successful in not only getting grant money but completing the projects to the satisfactions of the people who

1:40:39give us the money so thank you very much now I entertain uh I'm happy to make the motion mayor I move adoption of consent calendar items 5A through 5e a second moved in second on the motion all those in favor aye opposed motion passes next item please item number six uh 6A 2007 through 2014

1:41:04housing element adoption okay before we get into the staff let me explain this is a public hearing formal public clearing and we will have staff presentations there'll be an opportunity for questions from the council on the report then I will open up the public hearing and a call for speakers

1:41:26there will be public testimony and at the end of that testimony I'll ask for a motion to close the public hearing there will be final discussion by staff and then uh resolution uh action possible action on the on the on the item thank you good evening council members I'm Jennifer Carman

1:41:49development services manager in February 2011 staff presented the draft housing element to the council and then forwarded the document to hcd our State Department of Housing and Community Development for an initial 60-day review period in accordance with state law

1:42:06hcd responded in May with a number of comments request requests for clarification and suggested revisions in October of 2011 a revised document was forwarded back to hcd and the Planning Commission approved resolution PC 1109 recommending adoption of both the element and the negative declaration

1:42:26that goes with it staff went back and forth a couple more times with hcd regarding some very minor comments an example of their comments was in our section of the housing element where we discussed development costs we talk about the charges that we Levy for different services and and what

1:42:44it costs to actually build apartments or or any sort of housing we don't charge impact fees with the city of El Cerrito well hcd said we had to say that so it was those kind of additions um just leaving it out didn't meet wasn't enough you actually had to say those words

1:43:02um on December 27th the city received our golden ticket which is the letter from hcd regarding um indicating that upon adoption by city council the state would certify the document and that's what all cities edit their documents to eventually get from hcd there is one significant change that

1:43:22will require a change in the zoning ordinance and this is in regards to Supportive Housing Supportive Housing is permanent rental housing linked to a range of Support Services designed to enable residents to maintain stable housing and Lead Fuller lives with the 2008 zoning ordinance update

1:43:39the housing types allowed within the city were updated to meet state law Supportive Housing was included within the residential care facility classification citing Senate Bill 2 hcd requested that the element be revised to call out Supportive Housing specifically as a

1:43:55housing type with its own use standards the adoption of the proposed housing element does not require concurrent zoning changes and staff is planning to consolidate all zoning ordinance changes that we plan for this year and bring it to you later in the fall our secret document was prepped in

1:44:12accordance with state law and circulated to the state Clearinghouse we received limited comments one from Caltrans but nothing that needed any sort of revisions to the document and that's staff's presentation thank you questions I don't have any questions okay I just

1:44:31wanted to reiterate the state has already said that they've accepted this document should we pass it okay do you see any reason why Council wouldn't pass it I sure hope not the reason why I asked I know that's kind of I agree with you and I just wanted to make sure we weren't missing

1:44:50anything here no we we followed um the path of what most cities did for their housing element and we didn't make any substantive changes from the last edit um we've included our Arena numbers we've shown progress and meeting those Regional Housing need allocation numbers

1:45:06and we have policies in the plan and in the programs that will lead us to creating the housing that's required by the state found one well there was there was a whole lot of data in the reports I found one very interesting over 40 percent of the households in El Cerrito make a

1:45:27hundred thousand or more that is correct that's correct yeah we often hear that the the figure of a hundred thousand a year is is a uh kind of like a Cornerstone or a I don't know a milestone of acceptability non-acceptability for uh uh for some some types of salaries and I

1:45:51just want to say 40 percent of the city is making over a hundred thousand dollars or more or more by the way in that and that it is not unusual to make a hundred thousand dollars a year correct wouldn't you from from the data would you data no it is not unusual okay thank you

1:46:09appreciate it okay um are there any speakers on this no speakers no speakers okay um well I should have opened I'd like to open the the public hearing being as if there is no public speakers I entertain a motion to close I move to close the public hearing all those in favor on the motion

1:46:34aye aye opposed passes will close the public hearing any uh comments or discussion points none of them and to say thank you welcome back Jennifer and thank you for your work on the housing element as mayor Jones mentioned um it's a great reference document that

1:46:54really paints a profile of our community and it's very very interesting if you're ever looking for statistics about the types of households that are in the in our city how they've changed since the year 2000 um it provides statistics on age you know number of persons per household

1:47:10comparisons with County and state level data so as as a document to understand sort of the the broad array of the types of people and the types of households that are in our city it's a really great reference document and it's always it's always good to you can always pick out

1:47:24little tidbits like Mary Jones had of interesting things about the city so thank you it's always great to have to have it prepared and to see it twice um and in both it's original and revised form is helpful yeah just my my supportive comments are well thanks to staff for

1:47:40um all our all of your great work and for our Council and the the past support for affordable housing has been steadfast and um and and we're increasingly known for how supportive we are and I think that's a really um a great thing to be proud of because there's plenty of

1:47:59uh communities in the Bay Area that do not want to accept affordable housing and recognize that the Bay Area is a very desirable place to live and with two BART stations um you know we have the opportunity to House people to in order to live sustainable economically more

1:48:17sustainable lifestyles in this era of foreclosure acres and people not being kicked out of their homes the pressure on apartment housing is incredibly high and ever increasing as more and more people both seniors and and Millennials choosing to want to live closer in

1:48:37um you know this is all part of that sustainability puzzle as well as economic Vitality um and so just wanted to to Pat Elsa readens on the back for being such a a welcoming and supportive Community to residents of all incomes and and also just to highlight that we

1:48:59we uniquely also support reasonable parking requirements I know I'm the like the parking nerd on the council I was like I've got lots of parking passion but it's it's an understated policy realm because it costs twenty thousand dollars to to build a parking space and when you look

1:49:18at our dwindling resources for before well going disappearing very soon affordable housing dollars to be able to emphasize that that housing um you know that we're putting that money towards housing people rather than cars particularly in transit-rich locations is very it's

1:49:41um we are leaders on that front and I'm very happy to say that we're we're we're doing that so and and hopefully more and more communities will will start realizing that so thank you that's it so with that I would make a motion to um to adopt a resolution of the city

1:50:01council adopting the general plan uh 2007-2014 housing element and accompanying initial initial study negative declaration pursuant to the California Environmental Quality act and authorizing staff to submit the adopted housing element to the State Department of Housing and Community Development for

1:50:20certification I second the motion okay all those in favor aye opposed motion passes thank you next item please item number seven policy matters the East Bay Regional Communication System radio purchase I think we're at 6B right now sorry the fees related to revisions to the animal

1:50:45ordinance public hearing hey we have a second public hearing same same procedure will be followed so I'd like to ask for a staff presentation here thank you mayor Jones members of the council so this is uh the animals ordinance the sequel fees um so as as you know as

1:51:16um some of this is going to reiterate things from the from the first uh presentation but in November 2011 the city council adopted changes to the animal's ordinance which will go into effect in April and which will allow residents to keep chickens bees goats and pot bellied pigs without a

1:51:36conditional use permit or Planning Commission approval the uh the council adopted uh new requirements for keeping these animals in order to minimize impacts to neighboring properties and in order to ensure that these requirements are met the council created a series of of new

1:51:57permits um for for the different types of animals these permits include administrative permits such as a residential chicken clearance a honey bee keeping clearance and a goat weed abatement permit as well as administrative use permits for goats and pigs the administrative permits will be over

1:52:20the counter permits once the applicant is able to demonstrate that they've met the the requirements of the ordinance the permit will be approved over the counter by staff um in developing the recommended fees for these new types of permits staff looked at other similar fees that that

1:52:41the city currently has as well as other similar permits in other jurisdictions when they were applicable and when the information was available the residential chicken clearance permit is similar to the city's current permit for a fence clearance which is an over-the-counter permit

1:53:03however the residential chicken clearance is expected to take slightly more time to process simply due to the fact that the that the standards that would be verified with that permit are are slightly more difficult to to measure and to verify than with the current fence clearance

1:53:25permit the um staff is recommending a fee of 75 dollars for the residential chicken clearance for reference the uh current fence clearance fee is 56 dollars uh the honey beekeeping clearance is expect is expected to take additional processing time due to the requirement

1:53:50that the neighboring Property Owners be sent a notice and staff is is proposing a fee of 90 for that permit uh the goat weed abatement permit is expected to take a similar processing time as the residential chicken clearance uh the fire department may be consulted on that

1:54:10permit on a case-by-case basis as necessary and staff is also proposing a fee of 75 dollars for that permit during the animals ordinance discussion the council um also created a process for exceptions for chickens and bees which would require the unanimous consent of all the

1:54:30directly adjacent Property Owners as part of that process staff would verify the the applicant would would gather the signatures of the consent of their neighbors and staff would verify those signatures by mailing a notice to um to each of those owners and um staff is proposing a fee of 25 for

1:54:56that process um in addition to the corresponding permit for either chickens or bees which would bring the total fee to a hundred dollars for chickens and 115 dollars for bees and there wasn't an error in in the agenda bill um which I believe set a total of 95 dollars for chickens but that was that

1:55:18was just an oversight so the total would be a hundred dollars um for reference uh the city of Albany has a very similar process for permits for chickens and their permit fee is 165 dollars in addition to these all of these over-the-counter permits the council was

1:55:38also interested in creating a separate category of administrative use permit fees for animals and lowering the administrative use permit fee specifically for Animals staff is proposing that the administrative use permit fee uh be lowered by 25 percent and a separate category be created

1:56:01specifically for administrative use permits for Animals as related to Title VII the animals ordinance um so that concludes Steph's presentation if you have any questions I can answer them just as a reminder could you just briefly kind of take us through the process that the most typical sort of

1:56:27permit permittee would go through for example the residential chicken clearance can you take us through the process of what materials they would bring what staff would do what information staff would store on you know just take us through the process sure um so the we'll use the example of a of

1:56:45a residential chicken clearance because I think that'll probably be the most the most common of these permits so um the applicant there would be an application form which the applicant would would have to fill out with their name and address and other Vital Information

1:56:59that form might also list some of the the requirements that they would be that they would have to uphold and then most likely they would they would need to prepare a simple drawing which could be drawn by hand um could be on you know on an eight and a half by eleven piece of paper which

1:57:17would show the standards for chickens are mostly related to two property lines distances to property lines and the number of chickens on the lot size so it would need to be a a site a simple site plan that would show the property lines and then show where the the

1:57:34chicken coop would be located on the property um for the standards for chickens also established a minimum distance to uh to homes on adjacent properties and that that's where it gets a little more complicated because the um the applicant would would have to kind of estimate

1:57:55that I I think there's going to be some some work on staff's part to kind of verify those those estimates because the you know Property Owners aren't going to always have access to their to their next door neighbor's property to to come up with a precise distance so to verify

1:58:12that you what would you do um well there were several um several resources we can use we have uh we have a GIS system which has aerial photography so we can kind of estimate from that as well as we can look through this the city's archives to see if there are any

1:58:31um building permits or surveys or any drawings of of the adjacent properties that show the distances to those property lines and if I could just jump in on that actually Google Maps with aerial photos you can actually calculate distance and I've been using that for up

1:58:50to for like you can measure the widths of sidewalks up to a foot Google Maps or Google Earth Google Maps Google Maps yeah so there if you um essentially create a map and you have your own map you can edit it and you start drawing lines you can dictate the units and everything so it's it's

1:59:08everybody can do that now so if we can share that with people or rely on that I think it's a very very real useful tool to get a sense of it yeah that's great there's some really there's some really useful things out there um so just to continue the um the applicant would need to submit that

1:59:28drawing um and then staff would go over that with them and verify those standards um and on the permit they would also need to um establish the number of chickens that they were seeking the permit for um you know one to four um and then once once we could verify

1:59:46all of that information the the permit would be they would pay and the permit would be issued over the counter okay so the idea would be would be a same day process correct okay um perfect and the other question I guess I I could have asked you guys really earlier about this sorry I should

2:00:01have I think I looked up the dog license fee just just to provide a context and an annual fee is forty dollars does that sound correct an annual dog license fee is forty dollars but it's discounted for spayed and neutered animals so it's it's actually half price okay so it so if

2:00:17somebody were to get a dog license they'd have to pay twenty dollars per year once they're you know to maintain their life I think you can buy a three-year license for for fifty five dollars so okay but it's essentially twenty dollars a year yeah exactly so I just kind of

2:00:31wanted to give a context for our one-time 75 dollar fee for a chicken permit that you would have for your property for the lifetime that you lived there versus a dog license fee that people regularly pay um would be more over the lifetime of the dog so that was just my question I

2:00:49want to verify um I don't I don't have any more questions on this one until it's time to comment thank you very much sorry appreciate it anything else Sean before in your report okay thank you very much no more questions I'd like to open the public hearing now do we have any

2:01:11speakers on this no speaker slips okay move to close the public hearing a second all those in favor aye passes public hearing is now closed any closing comments I'm I'd just like to make just a couple please um thank you to staff I'm very happy with unanim's consent procedure that has

2:01:36been um devised and I think it's a really great alternative I know that we wanted to come up with something that was verifiable that these neighbors actually signed this form and a notary is often the sort of default and I think that we've come up with a great alternative

2:01:50so that um that's not an undue burden to go find your notary and sort of take that time out of your day so I'm really happy with that procedure I also just wanted to note that I'm sure that there are some whenever we set fees there's always some folks who are concerned about

2:02:04um the pricing and the additional burden that places on them so just to speak to that a little bit we could have cut we could have taken the idea that we don't want to regulate this at all let's just let people do whatever they like and then the permits would be zero because

2:02:17that would be zero staff time we know of course that would add to our nuisance calls and we get a lot of complaints so what we've tried to do try to balance here is we're going to allow these new types of animals to be kept legally in our city we want to provide like we were

2:02:32trying to talk about before we wanted to provide this balance of allowing people to do this but still allowing their neighbors to sort of have the feeling of the comfortable feeling that they're going to have their chickens in this certain place they're going to have

2:02:44appropriate coops I always use chickens because that's just the most common one they're going to be in this they're sort of like the regulatory environment set up and we as city council members and as City staff are trying to introduce this new um type of pet or type of animal

2:03:01cultivation in our city and we want to do in a way that that really balances everybody's interests so I'm really happy with that and also just to make another note in order to keep chickens you it's quite there's some number of costs that goes along with keeping a

2:03:14chicken including um developing a coop for the chicken and that's I mean I was just kind of poking around online and those you could buy all the materials for maybe a hundred dollars but if you actually purchase one of these they're three or four hundred dollars ready built

2:03:27um so to keep an animal in the city is an investment you have to care for the animal you're going to have to invest some resources and I'm pretty happy with the I think the level of the fee at 75 dollars is in line with sort of the investment somebody should be willing to

2:03:42make to commit to care for and and to take care of these animals either for meat or for eggs so I'm I'm really happy with the level of the fees and I feel like they reflect sort of uh all all the interests we're trying to balance here tonight great thank you I'm happy to make the motion if there's

2:04:04no other comments I move a resolution of the city council of the city of El Cerrito adopting revisions to the master fee schedule by amending resolution number 2011-xx to add fees resulting from the amendment of El Cerrito Municipal Code title seven animals second

2:04:25it's been moved and seconded on the motion all those in favor aye aye opposed motion carries next item please seven is an East Communication System radio purchase good evening mayor Jones council members I'm Steve benini Lieutenant with the police department and before you this evening is a

2:04:57agenda bill for the East Bay Regional communication systems radio purchase this e-brick system has been a long and somewhat complicated process beginning in a 2007 and now we're at the portion where we can begin the actual purchase of the p25 compliant radios agencies in Alameda and Contra Costa

2:05:19counties are in various stages of leasing purchasing and installing these radios for the e-brick system the Richmond Police Dispatch Center the city's primary dispatch is also in the process of purchasing and having this radio equipment installed this process by the city of El Cerrito

2:05:37was a group effort and it's resulted in the purchase of 206 radios spread throughout the police fire Public Works and Recreation departments the purchase itself is funded through the MSE vehicle replacement fund Monies and a FEMA Grant obtained by the fire department

2:05:57this results in no general fund dollars being spent through a collaborative effort among all the Departments the number of radios to be purchased was reduced to the current 206.

2:06:10it was reduced without sacrificing service to our citizens or safety to our employees the per unit cost of the radios was initially approx about four thousand five hundred dollars following the MSC contribution and the fire FEMA Grant their per unit cost was reduced about two thousand six hundred

2:06:33fifty dollars the monthly maintenance fees for each rate are each unit will not increase as a result of this purchase our current radio system is aging and dying the handheld radios are failing they're no longer supported through parts and the electronics contained inside they're

2:06:56difficult to repair if we can find parts and we have several that have died and we've taken them to make one good radio out of three or four that have in it not in use the current system does not allow communication with the Albany Police Department we can't hear them or talk to

2:07:13them which is unusual since they're our closest neighbor to the South these problems and many others will no longer exist with the new radio system the radios were purchased based on a competitive bid process by The e-bricks Joint Powers Authority which awarded

2:07:31Motorola the contract so the guidelines that we have the cost structure came through that competitive bid process the 206 radios have a monthly maintenance fee of approximately 45 dollars I say approximate because the fees are in flux somewhat by agencies and cities that opt into the system or

2:07:53opt out of the system there is the potential that that monthly maintenance fee could go down somewhat depending on how many radios come on the system the PD has approximately total of 95 radios that will be in in service at any one time fire has approximately 84 radios Public

2:08:13Works has approximately 23 and the recreation department has four radios and one base station ultimately the purchase of the radios through Motorola who is the source vendor for the e-brick system will save us time we'll save money will save us from having to go to a

2:08:34competitive bid process ourselves and we're able to maximize our energy in dollars by utilizing Motorola if there are any questions at this time I think I'll be able to answer most of them I think so any questions I just have one thank you for the presentation can you

2:08:54talk about from the public safety perspective sort of the importance of communicability between agencies um interagencies as well as among our city departments you know Recreation Public Works fire police all having this ability to communicate what what's what's the importance of this

2:09:12on a local city of El Cerrito level you can think of it as if there were a missing juvenile or a missing adult oftentimes in a search situation there's a lot of resources in addition to the police and fire departments that need to be used in our city some of those immediate

2:09:28call-outs would begin with the public works or Recreation Department if we don't operate on the same radio system or a system that we can communicate with each other we won't know what some of the volunteers are doing we won't know what Public Works is doing we will be retracing our steps and

2:09:43we won't be able to find the missing juvenile or the missing adult in a timely manner with one radio system that operates amongst all of the public or the uh staff here within the city it allows us to communicate quickly it allows us to meet our goals quickly and allows us to

2:10:01cover a broader area in a shorter time span great thank you oh oh more excellent if we travel now to Albany we have to stand next to an Albany Police Officer to communicate we can talk to our guys they can talk to their guys but we have no way to communicate in between

2:10:18so this is most evident when we have a felony crime such as a bank robbery occurring in the south end of our city if that suspect flees in Albany we have to go from our radios to our dispatch from our dispatch to albany's dispatch and then back to their cars so it's a

2:10:35big loop an extended time that takes place in the city so I'd interrupt you before I was just reading the about the not only the counties and the cities but also the Special Districts so I assume does that include East Bay Regional Park system or what are the Special Districts that

2:10:49are included there's East Bay Regional Parks there's University of California they're in that as well a couple of fire districts it's it's a a huge undertaking across two counties Alameda and Contra Costa County and most of the cities in between great thank you

2:11:07for the examples questions thank you very much no speakers no speakers on this okay we'll bring it back for discussion and you have any comment so just another um very excited to see another great example of El Cerrito staff collaborating and winning Grant funds to

2:11:32do very important work so I'm happy to make a motion whatever I'll just make one I'll just Echo those comments um I think that there's so many examples you can come up with about how important it would how important it would be to have this sort of communication across not only our

2:11:53various departments but across all all of the agencies um some examples were given you could just you could just imagine you know having a problem on a on one of our Recreation sites and to to have the ability for you know somebody who's supervising youth at one time to be able

2:12:08to radio for assistance if they need it um I think it's just great it's just great and it's even more fantastic that we're able to do this uh with so much outside funding and we're able to kind of Leverage all that to to get a great benefit for the city yeah I just had some questions this is

2:12:25uh been a long time coming uh when it was first envisioned the amount of money that was they're talking about was almost insurmountable 74 million dollars it actually went up slightly more than that final analysis but um I think to our credit we we signed on this early in its uh earliest Inception

2:12:50uh the conception of it we were one of we were one of actually the founding cities that that bought in and we've been setting money aside ever since and even though the cost has come down the price tag is still high and again when you take a look at the grants this is

2:13:10money coming back to the city so that we can do things like this [Music] um tremendous amounts of money as well as the money we're putting into it and I will say this and I've said it before and I I feel strongly that more than anything else when you take a look at the

2:13:27disasters that happen have happened in the East Bay and you read the reports on what went wrong and what needs to be improved communication between agency is either number one or it's in the top three of recommendations and here we are addressing that I also think and uh it

2:13:47was brought up earlier in the report that this also adds to the safety of our Public Safety employees and others they now can talk with each other and other agencies this allows them to know what's going on before they get there as well as the the speed and the accuracy by

2:14:06which they can do their job as previously brought up so I think it's great to see that it was almost six seven years ago when this started and we've stayed with it and now we're very close to implementation so the buying of these uh radio units uh we'll just uh put us in a position to be

2:14:29ready to go so I think it's great so with that ready for um I would like to make a motion to adopt a resolution of the city council and El Cerrito accepting 2 million eight hundred and eight hundred thousand eight hundred and two thousand and four hundred and Grant funds from the Federal

2:14:51Emergency Management agency um uh 605 000 and 600 in fire agency matching funds 273 000 in Grant funds from the municipal Services Corporation appropriating 273 000 from the vehicle and Equipment replacement fund and authorizing the city manager to enter into a three

2:15:17million 954 000 agreement for the purchase of Base stations vehicle and portable radios for use on the East Bay Regional Communications system ebricks I'll second the motion it's been moved and seconded on the motion all those in favor I opposed motion carries next item please item

2:15:41number eight Council liaison reports do we have any I'm happy to start um I attended uh or I attended the arts and culture commission meeting which met on January 18th this meeting occurred right after the commission had gone on a tour of all of the potential light posts in El Cerrito

2:16:04where um the the public art pieces may go and the goal of the meeting was to identify priority locations for those pieces of Art and this was the first of two or three I can't remember sorry two or three meetings where they're going to go through this process so at this at this

2:16:23time they mostly debated the merits of clustering the icons two or three in a certain location two three four even up to six in a certain sort of geographic location to create a big a big um you know a big visual Impact versus spreading them out along the Avenue so

2:16:40there were competing discussions about those things with some people feeling very strongly about both of these ideas and they had a couple of Commissioners absent so the artist was there and they gave her initial Direction but they very were very tentative and or they were

2:16:53tentative because they wanted to hear from their other Commissioners so their idea was to then um wait until the next session to give a little bit better Direction and The the way that this will be um solidified or sort of the final direction to the artist once they have

2:17:10another public hearing well the where they will present to the public what they think their priority locations are and then they'll hear back from the public about whether or not they agree or disagree with those so that's the process that they're they're coming to

2:17:22with that major major art piece and I also attended the parks and rec commission and there were they're sort of in the mode of trying to figure out what what they're going to work on primarily this year there were a couple of updates on on tennis courts um but other than that there was a

2:17:40discussion about what they'll do for Earth Day and other other sorts of programs they want to work on this year they hadn't met for a couple months so the main aim of the of the meeting was to discuss to discuss 2012 and I think when they meet again we'll have a little

2:17:53bit more substance that's my update thank you thank you yeah unfortunately I was not able to send the last human relations Commission meeting but they did meet um and I believe they were discussing uh the the priorities for the year so I'll check back with them and Report out but unfortunately I

2:18:12had to go to the conference for work so um I attended a meeting of the green Corridor uh cities it was held in Berkeley and it was quite a it was quite a group the mayor of Oakland uh the mayors of the cities that are in the corridor were there the Chancellor from

2:18:32UC Berkeley was there and uh two things uh one is everybody congratulated Richmond on being selected for the uh Lawrence lab that will happen and that's one that we supported by the way supported our neighbor on and it came through I think it'll be a great addition there's a lot

2:18:53of people excited about it and we're not too far away so hopefully um will be able to contribute mightily to the the green Corridor effort with that lab nearby second thing that came out is uh the there is going to be an increased push in this group coming together and

2:19:15starting to go forward with some sort of action and collaborative work in the in the areas of developing businesses within the green corridor uh so yours truly is on a subcommittee with uh mayor Bates uh to go to look into what are some of the advantages um that the the cities have and being in

2:19:45this Corridor and what type of incentives or what type of advantages can we give Private Industry to come in uh to the corridor to to work and we do have a number of them I mean it isn't like we have nothing we have one of the the largest solar panel companies in the United States based in

2:20:05Richmond and we have other things going on in the corridor in in Berkeley and Oakland so it's a lively one there's a lot of enthusiasm for it and we'll see what happens I I think it'll be good but I think it is time that we lay it's nice that we have this group but it's now time to to

2:20:25lay out what we can do so that's what's going to happen all right and with that any other comments okay call for adjournment all those