City Council Meeting December 18, 2012

0:00:00thank you do I have to turn it on maybe better good evening everyone I'd like to call to order uh the regular city council meeting for the city of El Cerrito Tuesday December 18th um I'm going to take this moment to report out from our closed session we did meet with and conference with legal

0:00:24counsel and we provided them Direction with that uh we'll have a role a call of the role councilmember Bridges council member Friedman here councilmember benicini here mayor Pro tem Abelson here and mayor Lyman here with that we'll move to item one uh Pledge of Allegiance led by council

0:00:47member Friedman please join me pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you item two is uh Council and staff Communications and I had actually like

0:01:12to start uh this item with a moment of silence uh for the uh children and and adults of Newtown um our hearts go out to them so if we could please take a moment of silence thank you uh I'll start with staff is there any staff uh reports tonight um proud to announce that yesterday

0:02:01um Governor Brown appointed our chief Sylvia Moyer to the California Commission of Peace Office standards and training otherwise known as post as most people know by now Sylvia has served as our police chief since July 2010. this position while appointed by the governor was also

0:02:23confirmed by the Senate so it is considered to be a big deal and um so I wanted I wanted to bring into our attention uh because I think it'll bring it certainly is a testament to the chief as well as bringing um exposure to the city of El Cerrito but I also on the

0:02:39assumption that not everyone knows exactly what post is and what the commission is I was going to ask the chief to come up for a minute or two just to um so we can congratulate her but also to explain um why we think why this is a big deal and why how important post is to law

0:02:54enforcement in California congratulations [Applause] mayor Lyman Council and Mr Hannon first really it's important for me to thank Mr Hannon and Captain Mike Regan and of course my spouse for supporting me in seeking this nomination and really to thank the California police Chiefs

0:03:18Association for nominating me for consideration so what is post and what does the commission do Post has a mission of continually supporting and advancing the professionalism of California law enforcement and post does this through training at all levels through policy

0:03:36creation and through strategic planning for California law enforcement and really the commission acts much like this Council acts in terms of questioning in terms of advancing policy and in terms of creating a sound future for this city post does that for California law enforcement and for me

0:03:57it's a huge honor because it takes me full circle from being an in the classroom post instructor and a physical training instructor at the police academy to now influencing policy for the nearly one hundred thousand police officers and peace officers that serve

0:04:14the state of California and one of my officers today asked me so Chief what does this mean and I said the great thing that this means for El Cerrito is that our name the El Cerrito police department will be on post documents every recruit that goes through the police academy every everyone who

0:04:33accepts training through post will see El Cerrito police department and I venture to Guess that they will look us up they will find out where we are and my hope is that they recognize that all of us are committed to serving at at a Statewide level and it could potentially

0:04:50improve our recruiting so I think what it means is that I'll serve to further the reputation of the El Cerrito Police Department so thank you very much congratulations thank you how long is the appointment I believe this first stint is two years and then I'll seek uh

0:05:09reappointment if they're if they're happy with my service or if you're happy working for them any other staff any uh Council announcements at all okay the next item item three is oral Communications from the public this is the opportunity for you to speak on items on the consent calendar or

0:05:43items that are not on the agenda we do limit remarks to three minutes and if necessary we will use the lighting system on the Center Council to help you stay on time are there any speakers our only speaker is Al Miller good evening mayor Lyman Council first thing I wanted to mention was that

0:06:11Saturday morning as you know mayor alignment because you were there the largest group of volunteers that I've seen in the years I've been working on the shoddy display assemble that Mosier and Seaview to once again erect the shoddy holiday display for the region

0:06:28and the people of El Cerrito I want to thank our chief of our fire department because uh a fire company from El Cerrito and from Kensington were there and uh you know they're really quite good at carrying camels now and since each one of them is about 200 pounds

0:06:47plus it's a very good idea that they're very good at doing it I also had the privilege of serving as a sheriff no sorry Chief as Shepherd of the Saturday evening and Sunday evening second shift of the display and again had the opportunity to see families come some three generation families as you

0:07:14all know coming with their young children and it's always a joy to see the looks in their faces and the glitter in their eyes and as they run up and down outside the fence and look over and try and find all the dogs and donkeys and goats Etc in the display this year was a little different

0:07:39because in addition to enjoying their joy that they were having it reminded me of why you asked for a moment of silence tonight uh so anyway uh I would like to suggest and ask that you as mayor of the council consider sending a letter to the mayora Council of Newtown

0:08:08expressing the as well as you can the feelings of the people of El Cerrito sourcing going to be this hard acknowledging their grief and sorrow and in any way we can supporting trying to understand what they're going through at least just to let them know that some

0:08:34people on the other side of the country are trying to feel their pain and understand what they're up against and hopefully this will move those of us here in the city that have rather strong feelings that if we were better equipped in our schools to deal with youngsters who have troubles or in

0:08:57our gun control laws that make a more rational uh address of who should be allowed to have access to the guns and the weapons that they have access to be what they need to protect their home and to hunt not the assault weapons that we usually give to our men and women who are in the

0:09:20war so thank you thank you mayor Lyman we have some additional speaker slips great can you call the next person up my next speaker is David Hutcherson I am I'm gonna take less than three minutes if not that um I started I'm also one is homeless and you don't have cereal and

0:09:56so I'm starting up a little something called my own self business which it is um is on stopping the drains on it on the sidewalk because you know how the insurance get stopped up on the side walking in there's less Waters go down the green well I started this since last um last

0:10:15night when the 17th which is to um starting on stopping all of them um it's not a hard thing to do we need we need help in that area um I started from their various locations as far as far as like the like the near Department Stores um the casinos in public Casino

0:10:41um I can say it's just Apartments you know different places where the drains were stopped up and so far it's been flying great and of course my last thing is happy holidays thank you for your service next speaker please Paul normington good evening Mr math council members uh

0:11:16my name is Paul normington I'm a resident of El Cerrito I live on the uh Arlington uh right by Madera school and I'd like to make some comments regarding item F on the agenda tonight the uh safety Improvement project at the corner of Arlington and Madeira um I've been a resident

0:11:38on the street there right by Madera for the last 16 years and so I have the benefit of some history of seeing what has been going on there um the uh the traffic situation especially in the morning around Madeira has become dangerously congested um one of the reasons for this is that

0:11:56this school actually has more intake of students this year than ever before and that's been slightly increasing and I think it's it's pushed the the traffic system Beyond capacity sometimes what we see now is a backlog of traffic reaching all the way down from um on down the Arlington from Madeira

0:12:15as far down as Potrero which is around about probably a third of a mile only for a brief spell especially in the morning the um the safety Improvement plan calls for two things one of them is to install uh lighted crosswalks I think that's an absolutely marvelous idea the other

0:12:32thing it calls for is uh these bulb outs which restrict the flow of traffic leaving Madeira and entering the Arlington the most congested part of the whole traffic story is the inability of traffic to leave Madeira and to enter the enter the Arlington and so my

0:12:54concern is that if we restrict it even further it's going to lend to an even longer backlog of traffic further down the Arlington at about 8 28 in the morning as people look at the clocks in their cars and realize their child's going to be late they're going to let

0:13:06them out to make their own way towards the school and they'll have to actually the kids will have to walk across that intersection on their own to try to get into school which I think isn't even going to make the safety situation worse so um I would call upon the council

0:13:21police to vote against the bulb outs um I think there's alternate things we can do at that Junction including putting in a one-way system where people could drive all the way down the whole of Madeira to Circle um creating a massive procession of drop-offs at least everyone would would

0:13:37be on one side of the road there'd be no need to cross the road if we did that or even better still putting in an actual traffic light at that corner there thank you for your time thank you our next speaker Madeline Cronenberg um so good evening I'm actually speaking

0:13:59on a specific item so I don't know if you want me to speak now or when you uh get to the consent calendar so I believe that's on the consent calendar and unless it's pulled this would be the appropriate time for you to speak on that matter okay well and I don't think

0:14:12it's getting cold no one's mentioned but you don't think it's getting pulled so let me speak on this matter so the matter is the um is the debt limit waiver that we have that the school district has uh requested of the city council 5H 5H yes that's correct um I'm uh I'm now the uh president of

0:14:32the West Contra Costa school board and I uh bring you greetings from the school board and I I I first of all want to uh Echo Mr Miller's comments and uh the school board is certain like our school board is going to uh send organ condolences to the Newtown community and I I support your doing the

0:14:53same um the waiver issue has to do with the bond measure that was passed measure e that was passed uh last uh November and in order for our school district to be able to successfully access the funds we need to apply for a waiver and I just want to explain that there is there are

0:15:15two details in the information the background information that you have that um that have been changed and I'm on the facility subcommittee with Mr Ramsey and we made an adjustment to the request so rather than at what we basically need is is to ask the the state of California to give us a waiver

0:15:35from having a 2.5 percent uh uh from 2.5 percent to we want to go not to six percent but to five percent which is a common which has been done by many other districts and instead of for uh 12 years for instead of for 10 years for 12 years that's the difference in in

0:15:58what was requested so I want to be sure that you've at you approve what we're actually requesting we're going before the state of California the California Department of Education in either March or may depending on when we actually get on the agenda uh and hopefully with all

0:16:17of our local agencies supporting us to to get the waiver without the waiver we're not going to be able to go ahead and and successfully issue the bonds that we need to issue because the our av won't support that the assist valuation rates in in our in the county basically

0:16:36are not going to support it unless we we are successfully getting the waiver this morning Mr Ramsey and I went to before the West County Waste Management board they granted the waiver as we speak we are before uh Richmond and Pinole and hopefully they will grant the waiver and what we need

0:16:55to be able to do to to uh is to say to to the state that just as all of our voters who knew that we were going to ask for the waiver because it was in the bond language it was in the ballot language and it was it was very very clearly communicated to the voters who

0:17:12overwhelmingly supported it uh just as a voter supported also our elected officials support right that's it if you have any other questions we have another board member Mr Groves is here and our financial advisor Mr Henry is here great thank you very much um just a point of clarity for everyone

0:17:30who is at home uh the resolution Remains the Same so that is part of the reason why we're not pulling it from the agenda item so thank you very much my final our final speaker slip is Cassidy Ellis foreign I am a parent at Madera Elementary School um so I'd like to speak on item f

0:18:00M excuse me um just to reiterate kind of what uh Paul went over you know the traffic situation up there is not a great one at 8 15 to 8 30 in the morning and then again from about 2 20 until 2 50 in the afternoon and those seem to be our heaviest times I think that a lot of us are are really

0:18:24in favor of the lighted sidewalk or crosswalk so that that can help bring some attention to the crosswalk for the parents or children that do choose now to park on Arlington and walk their kids to school trying to alleviate some of that in our school traffic um the concern is is the bowl bats you

0:18:46know we did do kind of a trial run last year where they put cones out um and it slowed traffic considerably um again I think that the focus is trying to get people to be able to flow smoothly through there so that the safety of the adults the children on is really focused on right now the biggest

0:19:08issue is getting people out of the Madeira and out of Madera on to Arlington so that traffic can continue to flow there by putting those bulb outs there it's going to restrict that type of flow even further um which could increase the traffic time an additional 10 to 20 minutes maybe

0:19:29even longer and it would definitely increase the safety issue on as far as people now having to park on the Arlington and walk their kids even further and or letting their kids out and having them walk themselves to school that crosswalk is a scary crosswalk uh you know we don't

0:19:50have a crossing guard at this time because unfortunately the city nor the school district is able to pay for it anymore so it's a great concern to have that kind of congestion there at that site um you know I think that there are other answers out there that maybe we should look at

0:20:10um I know that putting a light there would be the best answer but I also know that it's an expensive thing to ask for when we're only talking about 20 minutes on each side of the school day um but I do think that there are other answers that could possibly be out there

0:20:24and that maybe holding some sort of meetings with the Madera school board with the principal with the parents with the community that's all right there and trying to come to a solution that's going to keep our kids the safest and keep traffic flowing on the Arlington

0:20:40could be an answer thank you very much thank you for your time um for those that two speakers that spoke on the Madeira item I would encourage you to stay we will be pulling that item into have further discussion any other speakers no mayor with that we will be moving to item four

0:21:02presentations tonight we have the pleasure of a presentation on the recycling and environmental Resource Center achievements in leadership in engine energy and environmental design or lead foreign congratulations on on this award by the way as mayor and also my name is

0:21:41middy's environmental services division manager and I'm here to actually congratulate you and uh all our residents for this great achievement so we um and welcome council member Bridges and Friedman this is my first meeting with you so welcome and welcome back um

0:22:01the we just found out last week that we achieved certification as lead Platinum with the U.S Green Building council's certification process and um as you may or may not know that is the highest level of certification you can receive so it's a pretty tremendous accomplishment and uh um so I'd like to

0:22:21go over some of the details with that tonight I'm joined also by some of our design build team that really really um in addition to the leadership of council for deciding to rebuild this project they really pulled together to make this happen and I'll get into a

0:22:35little more details about that but um Jim Coyle from pankow our lead contractor is here Chris Knoll and Tad costarison from Nolan Tam our architects George Lucas and Tom Burnham from loisa sunubalodi who did the energy modeling for the project and were responsible for

0:22:51the rigorous certification process and then also West Sullins from representing the Northern California chapter of the U.S Green Building councils here as well and this right Garth I may ask you to uh it's been going a little the growth has he's the real secret

0:23:21behind the success of this project as you can tell um so tonight I just want to quickly quickly for those who haven't been involved in the process go over the timeline of the process in a quick project overview a quick review of the US Green Building Council lead

0:23:36certification process some of the highlights from our report card um introduce again the members of our design build team and ask them to make a few comments and then to get comments and questions from you um in many ways achieving lead Platinum is the final chapter of the

0:23:55Redevelopment of this project I hope from here forward you'll hear much more about the project but it will be about all the new programs that we're able to host up at this facility um so you can see in this project actually the project started in 1972 and not 1978 but it was in 1978 that the

0:24:13city took it over and it's pretty incredible to see where we've come it was important to the community when we were doing public input that we maintained some of the funkiness which hopefully we've achieved while making it also just a much more safer efficient and inspiring place to come

0:24:29recycle and participate in other environmental action so um skip to the bottom here which is on May 3rd we're hoping to screen a film about the history of the center during this process we realized that we had so many archival information so much archival information the feeling of the

0:24:50center and we really wanted to preserve that in film as we knew that this would be a really big transformation so we're going to be seeing the the almost complete version at the end of this month and hope to be able to screen it to the public and it'll include interviews with

0:25:03some of the founders people who've been involved throughout the years and film of the of the construction process so in 1972 um ecology opened by a group of passionate volunteers who wanted to contribute to diverting waste of course from the landfill in 1977 the city took over

0:25:21operations and uh it was as you all know incredibly popular over the next several decades so popular that the facilities which had been kind of cobbled together became in need of reconstruction in 2010 many of you authorized design build to help us rebuild this project

0:25:40and that was a really really important moment what it allowed us to do was stipulate the price of the project we knew there was a maximum amount that the city could afford and then enter into a design build competition to find our best team to help us build that project at the

0:25:57stipulated sum and to give the city the most value um and we went to a best value competition and one day that isn't here is on November 15th in 2010 we awarded the project to pank the team of pancow Nolan Tam and a lot of their excellent sub-consultants and we entered into a

0:26:132.8 million dollar contract with them and in addition to everything we didn't design the project before awarding it to them we wanted to leverage their creativity in the design we told them how much money we had and what our pretty lofty goals were we wanted to be

0:26:27very sustainable we wanted it to include a lot of public input into the design process and we gave them a lot of program requirements how much square footage we needed how many materials we wanted to be able to accept and we wanted it to be very flexible um and they came with not only meeting

0:26:42our design requirements but offering a few above what we required we required lead gold and they came and offered lead platinum and I'm really happy to announce that they made it um they'll talk about the challenges with that and they also offered things like a solar PV system which we had not

0:26:59required we didn't know if we could afford it um rainwater harvesting which was something that they added and a really Stellar public education Graphics program which we wanted but they exceeded our requirements and several other things including a compressed schedule

0:27:16um on April on May 9th uh we opened it April 22nd we uh we opened the ground on May 9th of 2011 and about a year later we were able to open the project um in between there I also don't have these dates but between um in order to bring Nolan Tam pankow on and then once they were on we did

0:27:34numerous numerous public workshops focus groups interviews to really make sure this project really met the community's needs and I think they did an excellent job of integrating that Community input into the design and we still utilize that input that we received quite a bit

0:27:48in our ongoing operations there is a picture of the groundbreaking which was not that long ago it feels like a lifetime ago and was for some some people um so that was uh a year and a half ago as soon as quickly again the whole entire project was three and a half

0:28:09million dollars which included all soft and hard costs and that was paid for entirely with the energy through the Integrated Waste Management fund and didn't use any general fund fees we're currently seeing about 300 to 500 visitors per day and I would say overwhelmingly satisfied if you haven't

0:28:24had a chance to even look at the Yelp reviews they're a lot of fun to read but we hear it daily people both El Cerrito residents and from afar just being incredibly impressed with the facility that's an increase of about 100 to 150 a day from what we we received before

0:28:39actually we've also gotten numerous requests from tours from people within the recycling industry from people in other cities and we're now offering monthly tours it was something we heard during the public workshops that people wanted to be able to come up there and

0:28:51learn more about what we do what materials we accept so we have tours the first Wednesday of every month at three o'clock um and um Garth just quickly did some numbers to see how many uh tons have been recycled or recovered since opening and you can see the numbers 4 688 and we

0:29:08think that's about a little more than 100 tons more than during the same period with the previous facility I mean importantly that includes um a lot of potentially hazardous materials like CFLs batteries used Pharmaceuticals you can see we accept over 28 items now in that number is

0:29:26always growing this map which you can pick up at the center or come up there and see also came out of the public Outreach process people often wanted to know if we accepted certain materials and sometimes we did but they couldn't see easily that we did so having an

0:29:40excellent way finding and Public Information Program was part of our our job so you can see this is color coded by more hazardous materials papers fibers other reusable materials and Garth and Mario and staff are continually looking to see what else we can accept in fact in the near future we

0:29:57hope to be able to add paint to the list of things we accept so the U.S Green Building Council leadership and environmental energy and environmental design certification program is a way to make sure that you're really holding the highest standards and achieving the highest

0:30:12goals in terms of Green Building it's a third party system so it requires a lot of rigorous documentation of your design and construction process so that they can verify that you have met these goals in several key areas which include sustainable site development water

0:30:28savings Energy Efficiency material selection and indoor Environmental Quality for the fun of it I asked them how big of a deal was achieving lead platinum and these are some numbers that they just gave me which you can see that in California there's 17 other local

0:30:45government lead Platinum projects and 58 total government projects so it's pretty impressive and that's out of you know you can see the construction field there's 321 total certified projects um City Hall was was the city of El Cerrito's first certified project so

0:31:00this project is also lead certified so it was our first foray into um kind of putting yourself up to putting ourselves up to this National Standard foreign so here's how the points break down in order to be platinum you need to get more than 80 points and we got 82 points

0:31:18I mean you can see how these break down really um the rest of our team we talk about this quite a bit there were some points that just weren't available to US based on the nature of the project and its location um because we weren't near a BART station because there wasn't a certain

0:31:32development density certain things that we just couldn't change so in sustainable sites one of those is also reusing your existing building which we really couldn't quite do so what we really in order to meet Platinum we had to really maximize everything that was available to us and

0:31:46you'll see we got every water efficiency point and we really worked hard on the energy points and on the indoor Environmental Quality points materials and resources again was very important to the project since our the recycling Center's whole goal is to um to harness the energy and materials and

0:32:06resources and and be positive in that area there were some again we couldn't do because we couldn't reuse existing buildings but everything that was available you'll see we we went for so it's quickly in terms of water efficiency you can see we got every point which is also a regional priority

0:32:19because of the Sierra Snow Mountain issues was to is to really be Innovative in water and so we exceeded um all of the water efficiency points you can see that we reduce the potable water use for landscaping and irrigation by 100 which is through our our rainwater harvesting system and

0:32:38specifying plants that need low water so we reduce the total water use by 75 but for landscaping and irrigation we use all rain water um another point is given for reducing sewage conveyance by having high efficient fixtures and again we reduce total water use by 42 percent the total

0:32:55required for this point is only 30 percent here's a picture of our cistern and it's we have a lot of fun watching how quickly it fills up in a rainstorm um and also an example of our interpretive signage most of our signage up there is in Spanish English and Chinese not some

0:33:11of these smaller signs in terms of energy and atmosphere we achieved energy cost savings at 74 percent the requirement was only actually 12 percent so this is important of course in terms of also just financially that's that obviously has some benefits to the project we also got

0:33:27an extra point for that because it we exceeded so much the requirement similarly with on-site renewable energy the requirement for the point is that you offset one percent of your energy and we've offset about 44 percent um and in fact as you know we're actually planning to offset 100 as we're

0:33:44adding eight kilowatts of solar panels in the next couple of months you can see in materials resources um we diverted over 95 of construction waste and we reused we specified materials that uh that were reused including all of our our desks up there were actually pre were

0:34:03were previously used um actually our conference room table up there was built from old barns um so where we could we we tried to also score points here we also specified as much possible recycled content and Regional materials and 81 of the wood in fact all of it that could be

0:34:21um spec from for FSC certified forests was just another picture you can see those who aren't familiar with the project you can see the solar panels are here and when we do the next eight they'll pretty much cover the whole semi-circle um so a lot of our points came from this

0:34:38in our administration building which has clear is 100 day lit so that really helped our Energy Efficiency points um again indoor Environmental Quality you can see that almost all of these points were achieved in the front shot of the administration building in terms of innovation points we got

0:35:00points for our public education program so that includes all of the signage that we did as well as the tours that we offer again I mentioned exemplary energy performance on-site renewable energy and daylighting all gave us points as well as meeting some Regional priorities

0:35:14which included the waste all of the water points and energy points which are put to California priorities so our grand opening our ribbon cutting was was on Earth Day last year so I'm going to turn it over just for a few brief comments from our team and then would love to open it up if you

0:35:32have any questions about this achievement so Chris Knoll from Nolan Tam is here and he was the lead project architect thanks Melanie uh melon did a great job of explaining the project um I'm Chris Knoll with Nolan Tam Architects we were very excited to see the project sort of come out on the

0:35:55street as it were and to put together a team with our Pals at panko uh to put a proposal together and we had a fantastic team working together to achieve this for us it was an exciting opportunity to do an unusual project there are this is kind of a unique thing you don't see

0:36:12this around in other places and to sort of do it as a as a sort of design challenge was really quite exciting our first task was to solve some really tough technical problems and issues on the pro on this site but also doing at a very low cost and for that our team also rolled up

0:36:37their sleeves and got down together and came up with some great sort of solutions for this we also insisted and then it be something that looked really great too because we wanted to be designed with sort of the highest sort of standards and we really racked our

0:36:52brains about how we you know what kind of Concepts could we come up here and and I think that sort of the site really was the thing that really inspired us is this sort of old uh Quarry circular form that was carved out of the Hillside and and kind of trashed as it were over the

0:37:08years by this uh and sort of left uh kind of bear and we thought well how could we restore this wonderful form in the landscape with this facility and so the idea of a circle came out and it sort of resonated very much with us with a with the whole idea of recycling and

0:37:23everything sort of goes around in a circle and so we came up with these this circular form it also sort of had a wonderful sort of technical uh advantage that it sort of it sort of normalized and sort of made the length of bins that we needed and the length of cars that we

0:37:40needed to park kind of Come Together by using that radial and so we were very happy to kind of come up with an idea that kind of seemed like a great design a dynamic form that also kind of could do the job for you so for us it was a great design challenge we had a great

0:37:56team and we're happy to work with panko and um I'm going to keep it really short thank you so mayor and council members and staff um my name is Jim Coyle I'm with Banco Builders it's a pleasure to be back here and we're happy to deliver on the promise of providing a lead Platinum

0:38:21project for your fine City and it's actually been a real pleasure to work with everyone here and especially your staff led by Melanie also Jerry Bradshaw I think everybody in your city has been just incredible and very professional and has great jokes too so we really we were really lucky yeah the

0:38:44the timing and the uniqueness of the project was something you don't see every day we were we were gratified to be awarded the project and I think also our design Partners led by uh Chris Knoll and especially Tad who many of you have met but also Lois's new baloti

0:39:01Sherwood Tippy Marr there's many great East Bay firms that you guys can really be proud of that are basically your neighbors that have put a lot of good work up there so again thank you so much we're proud to deliver this and uh we hope this serves a shining example for your city

0:39:19for many years to come and I think uh George Lucy louises will uh come up and say a few words uh hi I'm George Lucas of Lewis I think it's fitting that a recycling center points to the future of how we're likely to start using and designing and building our buildings as our buildings

0:39:41have traditionally have mind resources if you think of how a building any building that we have today uses materials and processes that basically consume uh we're now hoping to shift that conversation into a regenerative one essentially how the construction of a building and the use of the building

0:39:59can help the environment be better rather than less bad so what we're looking for is now better buildings not less bad ones so that's the that's the what we're trying to do and we started with us and I think it's a really great that it was a recycling center it's just

0:40:15points in that right direction thanks great lastly um West Sullins is the Green Building program manager at stop waste our neighboring County and is also a representative and works with advocacy on the national level with usgbc as well as with the Northern California chapter

0:40:34thank you thank you for having me so I just wanted to say a few words about congratulating for this building as well and I as you mentioned I work at stop waste we have a lead Platinum building too so we can have a little bit of an arm wrestling match um but on a different hat wearing the

0:40:48kind of national U.S Green Building Council hat I've been actively involved in that rating system for over a decade now and it's been really nice to see kind of the leaders in California especially take those principles and settle out of the principles for Green

0:41:03Design and extrapolate that outward and now lead is really not only a U.S rating system it's also a national International rating system and we're seeing more and more Green Building principles that start right here and if I may say in the Bay Area being applied

0:41:19internationally as lead evolves over time and I think what you've done here with this building as as Melanie mentioned you know there's 17 lead Platinum local government buildings well and there was more of lead buildings in government in general but total overall

0:41:34all lead buildings make up about five percent maybe a little less of the total building stock in the US so we've got a long way to go I mean there are some big challenges facing the environmental Community from climate change to water scarcity all kinds of things and over 40

0:41:51percent of emissions of all emissions in the U.S are from buildings from one way or another they come from buildings so things that we can do here by building Net Zero by saving water by reducing waste are things that are may seem small on a single building but are part of a

0:42:06bigger movement and a bigger solution I would say so what you're doing here is not just a lead building that is stellar and beautiful and has some of the best talent that you can get in California and Beyond but also as a symbol for the rest of the country in the world and I

0:42:22think that also points to the usgbc's mission statement which I'll try to recite from memory which is to sustain buildings and communities will regenerate and sustain all life within a generation and that's their mission is to get these things scaled up into every building within our

0:42:42lifetime so that I think is something that you're clearly showing here with this building it's an outward example it's a success and I think we should be all you should be all very proud of it so thank you thank you so I think that's it and I'm glad that Jim mentioned Jay Bradshaw so I was the

0:43:01lead project manager on this Pet Head um with Garth Schultz environmental analyst from the division as well as recycling center manager and Jerry Bradshaw our Public Works director really as well as of course the building division the planning department this really was a

0:43:13group effort with all of you and with uh residents and I hope we're really proud of it and I hope that people really get a lot of use out of it and come up a lot so if you have any questions there's lots of us here to answer them otherwise congratulations um one question might be when do we put

0:43:31the plaque up when do they start being able to show off their new plaque up there at the recycling center so we have to decide Wes actually encouraged me that we have a big party when we do it he said they did that but um I can order it uh as a blast Thursday it'll be placed prominently kind of at

0:43:49the entrance we think we'll do a nice Platinum colored plaque um and then May 3rd will be our is at this moment the next big public event up there is when we do the film showing but we could decide on a pass along test if anybody wants to us you know we could we

0:44:03could do something special when we when we install the plaque soon let's wait for the rain to stop any other comments from the council if I could just make a brief agreement and you don't have to answer this now two buildings where we've gone through the lead process it would be interesting

0:44:21and I'm sure as staff you're all thinking about in terms of Lessons Learned design items or things that were integrated that were maybe easier than you thought they might have been at the outside of the project and other other items that were designed in that were

0:44:34maybe harder to implement when it came down to it so at some point or another it might be interesting to hear sort of what we learned from this process and as we look to the future of other sorts of Capital Improvements you know what are what are what are we building on and

0:44:48what can we do the next time that maybe would improve on this process as it sounds like it was it was a wonderful process overall but just going forward how we can kind of keep the momentum going for different projects that we take up I think actually our partners

0:45:00have mentioned if we'd like to do a debrief kind of a study on it I think that as our as a design build legislation was brand new we when when we did this it was because we saw that there was a news release that we could use design build for projects over a million and I think there's a lot we

0:45:14learned about it um I think it it might be a unique fit for some of our upcoming projects as well but there are people who've offered to do some sort of a study session before you know um to learn again from these two um both really successful very different construction projects so I think that's

0:45:30a good idea and I know this team has offered to participate in that as well to tell us about some of the Heartbreak that we all had as we went through it but um in the end you can see from the timeline and the results I think and you know being on budget on time

0:45:42um it was a really and tonight's topic of lead Platinum I think it was a really successful project and would love to share the Lessons Learned thank you councilmember Abelson I'd like to add to that my thanks to our city staff who oh that's that's differently who are

0:46:01really the ones who made this happen I mean I mean we we said yes we want that kind of a building but really it's the staff that from our point of view made this happen on our side and I'd like to particularly acknowledge gar Schultz um and Melanie Miss and uh Jerry

0:46:23Bradshaw and I'm sure I've forgotten somebody but I think all of them worked together very hard as a team to make our city a better place that we can all be proud of for a very long time to come and so I hope that anyone out in the listening audience or will take an

0:46:43opportunity if they haven't already to go up and check it out because it really is different and it really is unique and it really makes El Cerrito a much better place so I'd like to you know repeat my thanks again to all of you for giving us what we have today thank you and I'm very

0:47:03proud to have the Leeds Platinum certification fantastic thank you and and I will Echo that I will thank all of you that came tonight to speak um for not only speaking tonight but for all of your hard work throughout the project it really makes a big difference

0:47:22um you know it puts El Cerrito on the map it continues to allow us to stand out and be environmental leaders that our citizens really want to be so thank you any other comments thank you um with that we'll move on to item five which is the consent calendar um I there are two items that I'd like

0:47:45to pull from the consent calendar item 5D and item five f for discussion poll five a I wasn't at the last minute so can I move to accept items on the consent calendar of b c people D I could pull D that will be e g h and I second the motion all those in favor all those in favor

0:48:18please say aye aye aye opposed abstains uh let it show their pass unanimously um item 5A amount of approval I second the motion all those in favor aye aye uh uh Nays abstentions stain so let it show 401.

0:48:42um item five D I pulled that uh there's one minor modification to the resolution itself that I'd like to insert so if we could turn to the second page of the resolution there's a paragraph with an Arabic number three page two the second page of the resolution which is attachment one

0:49:12select the third piece of paper in from the front of the resolution uh Arabic the paragraph that starts with a men's resolution 2006-52 I would like to say per month after the control point of 7051 per month effective the pay period in which um got it okay if I get a motion on that

0:49:38yes I move adoption of consent calendar item 5D with the modification specified by the mayor to item number three on attachment one of the resolution second all those in favor hi uh Nays extensions let it show that are passed to you nastily unanimously I'll get that I'll

0:49:57get that before I'm done um that brings us to item five f as in Frank um let me read the title of this one uh if I have Arlington Boulevard at Madera and Brewster drives safety Improvement project uh I see our esteemed director of Public Works before the podium so

0:50:26I know you weren't prepared you didn't necessarily have a presentation prepared but maybe there are a few words that you would like to let us know about this item sure um there have been some concerns voiced here in the meeting tonight and I know that there have been

0:50:41some comments forwarded prior to the meeting so I'll I'll kind of run through those um the the prod the intention the intention of this project was to create a safer environment uh in the vicinity of Madera school as you've heard from some of the people tonight there's a lot of traffic

0:51:00moving around this school every morning every afternoon to drop kids off and pick kids up and it's not uncommon we have that at a lot of our schools what's raises this up to the next level is the proximity of Arlington Boulevard one of our major arterials and our primary

0:51:18arterial for the east side of town through the Hill area um to get people in and out of that area is is a bit tricky and parents have learned to to deal with that on their own with just the traffic control that we have up there but we did submit this project for

0:51:36uh say Frost to school project won the grant award that we applied for and proceeded to finalize the design our philosophy on this project was to try and bring more order to the circulation of all traffic there pedestrian as well as vehicle traffic one of the vehicles we've used to do

0:51:57that in many other projects is curb ball bouts curveball bouts are something to help Define the traveled way better for for the vehicles to pass through the intersection so they know better where they need to drive it also shortens up the length of the crosswalk for people who need to cross

0:52:15the street but one of the primary benefits of a bulb out is it gives a little more visibility to the intersection not just a pedestrian or a school child standing there waiting to have cars yield for it but there's a piece of infrastructure built to help bring more visibility to that phenomenon

0:52:34people wanting to cross the street so crosswalks is something we we did consider here there are limitations to what we can do with crosswalks there and at the end of the design we ended up necking down only Arlington Boulevard we are not necking down Madera Madera is getting narrower

0:52:53by about a foot in order to re-realign the curb as it comes up to curve into the Arlington area so the traffic coming out of Madera we don't expect to be inhibited by this in any great way we actually vetted the design because we too had some concerns we we certainly understand the anxiety people

0:53:15have in a situation where some hazards already exists especially when we have children involved and people have anxiety about that and I understand that I have my own anxiety as a person in charge of getting this design and built and we don't want to risk making it

0:53:30worse that's certainly what we don't want to do the parents nor us nor the school administrative staff so we did vet the design we went out and set up traffic cones set up a a cloth Waddles like berms to simulate curbs put down some temporary striping to simulate the

0:53:49exact geometry and actually we crowded the into the roadway just a slight bit more than what the final geometry was to see what would happen and we left that down for several weeks we went up and witnessed it on several mornings several afternoons and watched the traffic flow

0:54:04pretty much as it had in the past we also were paying attention to phone calls and other Communications of complaints and we really received none during that test period so we felt confident that the improvements we were planning were not going to make the situation any worse in the meantime we

0:54:21felt like we were getting benefits of of making the crossing of Arlington Boulevard more prominent more visible so if the traffic on Arlington most of that traffic does not know there's a school there or doesn't pay attention they're they're just flying through on their way

0:54:36to work or way home from work we want them to be a little more cognizant that this is a pedestrian Zone thus the impayment flashers and the other lights associated with the crosswalk we're also doing uh bull bouts up at Brewster a block South which is the back entrance into

0:54:52the school we are hoping that this will Foster a safer environment as one of the speakers said earlier tonight it's a very scary crosswalk I understand that and our goal really is to make it less scary but in doing so we feel like we've done a pretty good job of keeping the Madera

0:55:11Street with the same as it is virtually and not inhibiting the traffic coming out what will have changed is right now the curb Returns the curves of the curb from Madera onto Arlington are going to be a little sharper curve so cars can't make the right turnout or the right turn

0:55:29in as quickly as they can now they will have to do that a little more slowly a little more orderly and that's by Design we want them to make those turns a little more orderly because we expect there to be pedestrians in the vicinity um there was a concern about the

0:55:46drainage the the property on the southwest corner of the Arlington intersection had some drainage problems in the past these are houses that are downsloped from the streets so anytime the water Stacks up in the gutter and comes over the sidewalk it goes right down people's driveways into their

0:56:02garages I wasn't here during those days but I understand from the resident there that the city actually made some improvements to help the water flow past your driveway better she was very concerned that our improvements would cause that to degrade back the way it

0:56:18was we vetted that very carefully the slope on the gutter coming out of her drainage improvements will be plenty steep there'll be a five percent or better grade coming out of there for the water to keep keep right on going past her driveway so it won't make a difference the bulb outs do tend to

0:56:35cause a little bit of drainage backup in a lot of cases but the bobots here are fairly modest they only come out about three or four feet from the curb and they don't they don't cause the gutter slope to flatten out much in this case so we're able to keep the the gradient

0:56:49of the gutter positive for drainage so I'm confident that we've done a good design adequate design that this will improve the situation up there um I don't know if you have any other questions on timing or so forth we do have a 60-day period on the bids that we need to award within 60 days so

0:57:11that clock is ticking we're not quite halfway through that so but I still recommend award tonight at this point happy to answer any other specific questions you might have um I always saw the ball Bots as a sanctuary for pedestrians um that's not what I'm hearing some of

0:57:30our residents say but that's why I have always seen it and I think you kind of pointed on the other hand I've also witnessed the traffic backing up and I would say that it actually goes past patero some days all the way down to cutting almost um at the peak of uh particularly in the mornings

0:57:51um we had a similar problem when Kensington renovation the hilltop School came to a portrayal lower campus and they put the Portables there we had Portola school was still there and then of course we had Sierra Prospect across the street it's one of the resolutions for traffic

0:58:07flow because we had three Schools starting at three different times they did stagger their times we can't do something like that here but we did one way a street and you referenced the back entrance of Brewster um would that be um I think part of the problem for the

0:58:25backup of the traffic is people are not only do they turn right um during that time but they're also trying to turn left and that's backing up the traffic in the other direction which is the people coming northbound would there be a resolution that would help the traffic and hopefully

0:58:41subsequently the pedestrians by making a no right turn or no left turn and and during school hours both in 240 or whatever and in the mornings say that they can't in one way that street for those hours or is that not really possible there's also some residential streets that are affected

0:59:01down there but it would only could potentially only be the hours of you know one hour 40 minutes whatever it is and and put signage up that might be too complicated but it could allow some of this other which I don't have too much problem with and I don't have much problem with the bulb out but I do

0:59:19think the traffic is part of the problem yeah and it's a problem for the pedestrians the students that's certainly something we could look at I don't think that that was given much serious thought in the design here I'm thinking of all kinds of um items I'd like to check conflicts

0:59:38impacts to the other neighborhood well it's a very small residential street down there too yeah and it has its own turnaround problems exactly so forth down at the end um and it's not the more heavily used in I think some people may not be aware of that as an option

0:59:54um it's something that could complement this so if we want to look at it beyond the scope of this it certainly could make it even more safe but I don't think it it would be an essential part of this I think it could be a compliment for something that could work out I'd have to study it and make

1:00:11sure there weren't some unintended consequences of that well the other issue is is part-time turning restrictions and enforcement and compliance yeah is is always an issue with those part-time uh turning restrictions so we certainly want to confer with the police department and

1:00:25what their thoughts were on something like that and I also don't know if there was any observations that when we did have a crossing guard there if traffic was um better handled were less congested with the crossing guard and I don't know I don't know the answer to that I don't know if anyone

1:00:41does yeah I don't as I stand here I don't know the answer to that I I think a crossing guard could could possibly help but uh I don't think that that's something the city has provided in the past I think the school PTA did for a while yeah and that's what the other

1:00:56comment I was going to make is that perhaps someone could look at having the PTA or some of the parent volunteers I mean I see a lot of the parents that go to Madera they're also on foot and they're walking yeah and and I always think that you know maybe they have

1:01:09they're close enough that they can do that they're not on their way to work they're not in cars right so yeah I know we can't go back to the days when I was a school child and we all walk to school no matter what the condition but if you know if we can make this a little safer

1:01:22maybe there are options for for kids to feel more comfortable in the crosswalk and some of the some of the older children maybe get dropped off out um off of Madera Arlington I don't know if that can happen but well you know when we see that flashing light on both ends of our town that exists now

1:01:38uh people really gets your attention and I think that will really help people stop and and that will maybe help the traffic a little bit too because cars will be able to to turn um you know leaving leaving the area you know and I mean I guess his school policy I would certainly not want people

1:01:58that are driving Northbound to drop their kids off on the other side of um of Madeira street because then they do have to cross that street if they're on the other side if they're on the north side of Madeira they they don't have to cross the street anymore you see them

1:02:12saying it'll impact the neighbors but they're already impacted you know you buy a house there you know the school's there yeah councilman Gibson any questions the only uh thing I was wondering about that there is a um program uh administered by Wick tack um Contra Costa 511

1:02:36and I'm wondering if they might have some resources on ways to improve the traffic situation one of the things I was kind of wondering about is um if there could be a carpooling um set up that they could help organize because I know in other parts of the county

1:03:01that there have been a lot of problems with traffic and that that program has been used to facilitate that so I'm just wondering if that would be um oh a way you know something to look at um and it perhaps would from the point of view of of the school and the city be

1:03:22a zero cost item um certainly something we could look at again that could complement the work we're playing right uh-huh councilmarner goodness thank you uh question on could you describe a little bit more for us of the design process that was gone through so this is a grant

1:03:44that we were I assume we came up with the design the design sort of in conjunction with the safe routes to school program is that is that accurate and can you kind of take us through what their criteria are for awarding a grant and you know which of these items that

1:04:00are included in the design that fit their criteria and were part of the reason that we were awarded the grant yeah I I can speak in general terms I wasn't the author of the grant so I don't know all the points of sale but you make a good point is that the grant

1:04:15um I'm almost certain we had bowlouts included in the conceptual design and that is that's a common tool in our tool bag to help calm traffic and make pedestrian safety elevate it a little bit and I know that we did have those in the application for the the grant so to

1:04:33take those out might might endanger the grant itself I'd have to check more thoroughly on the on the details of that but it wouldn't surprise me a bit if that was the case and just as a follow-up to that then the party is consulted it sounds like we went through

1:04:47a process of of testing the design and then were there discussions with you know the school principal or School staff members or sort of what what was the consultation process yeah we we've been working with various groups in fact I think they have a new principle this

1:05:03year so we had to bring a new principal up to speed at the again the school year because the old principal that we were working with earlier last year was gone we've worked with the neighbors that have a couple Community meetings at least two that I'm aware of I know we've

1:05:17met with individual Property Owners a few times the people at the southwest corner had the drainage concerns also are concerned about the general circulation we met with them a couple of times and the neighbor on the other side that's going to have his driveway

1:05:30modified just a bit we've met personally with them as well as the community meetings we've done thank you Mr Bradshaw I've got a few questions okay um I guess the first one I have is to get a better understanding of the project how many crosswalks across Arlington are being proposed

1:05:50to be one you know one is lit and and second would be to have bulb outs I believe it's just two there's one at Madera and one at Brewster so so both of those are crossing the Arlington at both of those locations right and they both will have uh light be lit with flashing lights no I believe

1:06:12it's just the ones at Madera okay and and the bulb outs are they um like the ones on Fairmont where we actually uh it create truly create an island and then have a metal great bridge over the curb or these are ones that are continuous with the curb these are continuous curve like you see on San

1:06:33Pablo Avenue rather than the ones you see on Fairmont which have the gutter running behind them so the gutter runs out in front of these and and uh you've checked the grades to make sure that there would be no flooding problems with the adjacent neighbors and and even

1:06:46though these will slow the water down and impede the water to some degree it's it the grades would all suggest the positive drainage away from the homes yeah in fact I in that specific location I don't think it will even slow the water down we've taken great pains to

1:06:59make sure we keep the exiting grade from that area at least the same as it has been I think you've touched on some of the public Outreach that you've uh you've done certainly with individual neighbors and such what public meetings have you had or do you plan uh we've had at least two Community

1:07:19meetings I think held at the school um again my my engineer who manages is not here tonight she's on holiday this week so I don't have a specific information on those but I know that there were a couple I'm not certainly you can answer this but we do have some representatives from

1:07:39the school board here um is it possible to stagger the have you talked to the principal about staggering the start times of different grades or different classes to try and extend the peak period so that it covers a longer period yeah I don't know if that discussion was to add

1:07:56okay and then um along the lines well two things on the ball belts it there are it's a traffic calming device and and as council member uh Bridges pointed out it it it's an island for pedestrians um you're talking about doing a full curve but there are potentially other

1:08:17types of traffic calling devices that potentially could be put in there that would not be potentially as as permanent I've seen large Planters uh you know the the three foot high Planters go in um that potentially could be removed if if indeed the traffic is not performing

1:08:36the way we want it to perform did you consider any uh temporary uh traffic calming devices that that would potentially be achieve the desire from a protection of The Pedestrian perspective but be less permanent uh no not really the the problem with Planters obviously they put a vertical

1:08:55element like that it's actually a place that people can disappear behind and hide from traffic so we wouldn't want to go that route um to do half measures can be can backfire on you to do measures that aren't as obvious as the curb code comes out the striping is aligned as you come

1:09:13into the intersection to create a a slightly narrowed Lane we're taking the lanes down to 11 feet which are still adequate but a little narrower than what people are used to which instantly leaves a four foot shoulder for bicycles to also go past these bulb outs

1:09:27um we didn't want to do half measures I've had those backfire on me in the past and and we just didn't want to go that route finally um we've heard tonight about from one of the public speakers Paul I believe it was spoke about changing traffic patterns up there using signage to them

1:09:45to create one-way uh traffic uh councilmember Bridges has talked about uh restricting uh traffic movement as well um you know what about a right turn only from Madera onto the Arlington permanently as opposed to time you know I mean it it would solve the enforcement

1:10:06uh issue and and every car that goes in there knows that they're going to have to turn to the right and go up uh the Arlington um and over to Mosher or wherever else they need to go to to you know get to their next destination whether it's the freeway or home or work somewhere else

1:10:25so just we've heard some suggestions about directing the traffic and and having uh signage be part of the solution I'm just curious if if that's something that you can retain in your uh in your design features as you analyze the success of this installation yeah we certainly made notes here we'll

1:10:49certainly make sure we consider all that um and with regards to holding this item over until our January meeting which we did have requests from some of the public to do that I heard you say that that would jeopardize our ability to award the contract at this price well I

1:11:07did some checking on that um the actually I noticed a typo in the agenda Bill we said we received bids on November 10th it was actually November 20th when we received bids the bids are valid for 60 days my quick math takes me that out to January 19th I think we do have a

1:11:27council meeting scheduled for January 15th prior to that deadline I was so noted that would actually change the resolution so whoever if we do make a motion to move this please make sure you change the date in the resolution yes are there any speakers on this item

1:11:49no speakers here no additional speakers well I'll close the public hearing portion of this and we'll take it up for discussion on the dice just one question for Mr Bradshaw and that is if we were to make a right hand turn only being Madeira the crosswalk is in that right-hand turn

1:12:17lane right yeah that's that's right is that correct yes yeah um as far as one weighing um their parameters you said that would have to be looked at at the turnaround space down in the booster and the back side of the campus and and if it was um doable as far as that was concerned

1:12:38do we as a city have the authority we do we can do that right we did that with Portola yeah it would be a would require Council action it's not something staff would be able to do but yes okay well I personally don't have any issue with moving forward with this having it

1:13:01Revisited letting I mean I don't have a problem with the ball abouts and some of the other issues that are in this as it stands now I really don't I do think ball bouts are kind of a good idea and I do think they provide a pedestrian Sanctuary but I I would like to see the

1:13:19traffic managed a little bit better and I don't know if that means a right hand turn only which would be one option and I think the second option would be to consider which would be my preferred option is to not let people come back out through that way at all and uh and I don't imagine school would

1:13:36be but I have a problem with that but I don't know about the residents because it would affect some streets is that right if I could get a little clarification the One Way Madera is has to be two-way to get back out there's no other way out once you go into Madera you can't go

1:13:54down the back way and then around there's a backdrop off you can't do that Sarah has a circle which is already one way around the circle okay but when you get by the school it has to be two-way in the in Brewster is somewhat the same way yeah so the only option would be to

1:14:09to help the traffic would be to do a right on right turn only kind of yeah if you said no left turn of Madero then the people coming from the south would have to turn at Brewster and and drop kids at the back of the school a question yes what if um the the students were dropped off on

1:14:43Arlington and then walked down you know if they were dropped off in front of the part of the Arlington that um would mean that they wouldn't have to cross the street so the South Side in other words okay and then so the students are some of some parameter of students were

1:15:04um dropped off there and then walked just around the corner um and then all those people wouldn't be coming down into the school or not as many somehow is that a viable option sure and I I that may already happen at some level that and what we're doing would not

1:15:24diminish that option right so I'm wondering if if we went ahead and passed this as is I think uh and then what we could do later is go back and study the traffic which in a way is a separate issue that the excessive traffic volume is which is what I'm hearing and try to look at

1:15:44solutions for that one of which is I think that um Contra Costa five on one issue because I I know that this is not a unique situation to have a lot of traffic around the school at school time it's it's a it's a major problem all over the county actual actually and there are some

1:16:03solutions that have been um they've come up with to deal with it and so um so that would be applied on top of this um other solution and one of which is I think the carpooling I you know the carpooling idea and then if they could have and I think that's possible from

1:16:26what I remember you know if they could be dropped if there was a drop-off Zone um so it's such that they never had the students did not have to cross any Street to do to do that a painted and staffed drop-off Zone that was on Arlington is what you're suggesting

1:16:43right um Southwest side yeah so there'd be no site no Street to cross and um it would have I'm not really positive even though that that would work and not block traffic itself but the um I know for example at um um it seems to me there I've seen a number of private schools do drop-offs where

1:17:15there's somebody there that parent maybe is on duty and they make sure the kids get you know the they do it in such a way that the parent only stops momentarily to drop off the child and then continues on I think some of these issues would need to be taken up with this school the

1:17:40principal the school board and it's kind of beyond the scope of this resolution now I am very confident in the staff work that went into this I appreciate Mr Bradshaw's explanation of both the public process and the considerations and I'd like to move resolution 2012 XX

1:18:00[Music] foreign would you entertain a friendly Amendment and that is that we change received on November 10th in the second whereas to received on November 20th yes thank you could I also ask I'm going to make this really complicated um could we have a report back from

1:18:22staff from from Jerry or Yvette um that they come back to us on the next console okay passing this as is but also have a report back about some of the other traffic issues may I make us a second comment that kind of follows on to that and that is the assistant city

1:18:40manager Karen pinkos at one time was meeting with the the principals in the city and I think they all have these very same issues I mean Fairmont has the same sort of issues so I think it another another Avenue in addition to the staff work would be at some point or

1:18:53another when she's uh has a meeting with those folks that may be brought up again and we can hear directly from the principles what their impressions are of these changes or changes they'd like to see so I'll report out at some point next year I'm not certain that needs to be in

1:19:08the motion but I say see staff um furiously writing notes and I'll add to that that I certainly would like to hear back that we've had some additional public meetings since we have had not only speakers but many comments received on this item by email that staff would keep us posted to their

1:19:29Outreach to the community we have a motion in a second do I have uh looking for yes votes do you have any eyes yes opposed abstentions make it unanimous that it passed we'll proceed on to item six this time and I have a script which mayor Jones always thanked you for the

1:19:56script so so shall I the next agenda item this evening involves two separate public hearings staff will make one presentation after which the city council will initiate two separate public hearings the first public hearing involves proposing Integrated Waste Management fees the set

1:20:17second public hearing is for East Bay sanitary collection disposal and processing rates the city council will provide an opportunity to hear testimony from the public regarding each item if you wish to speak and have not submitted a speaker slip to the city clerk please do so now

1:20:37and if you want to speak on both items please submit two slips remarks will be limited to three minutes per person after everyone has had an opportunity to speak at each public hearing I will seek a motion from the council to close the public hearing let's begin with a presentation

1:20:57from Mr Schultz thank you honorable mayor council members viewers at home and those present I'm Garth Schultz I'm an environmental analyst in the city's Environmental Services Division and among other things my broad Duties are to manage our Solid Waste contracts operations and the

1:21:17operations of the city's recycling collection center and curbside collection programs here to you here for you to present tonight the um the background on the iwm which is the Integrated Waste Management fees in the East Bay sanitary collection rates and fees I want to note before we go

1:21:37into a little bit of detail these are two components of the total bills that residents and businesses see in El Cerrito for their solid waste collection there's actually three in total there's your East Bay sanitary fee or rates your Integrated Waste Management fee which covers the

1:21:53recycling and there's a third fee that's set by the West County Integrated Waste Management board which is called the Earth fee but that covers the processing of garbage and green waste in the disposal of those items as well as things like the household hazardous

1:22:07waste program for residents in the city Outreach and education so the total rate that rate payers pay is comprised of three different elements only two of which we're talking about tonight the first is that the Integrated Waste Management fee and this is a fee that's

1:22:21set by the council and is charged on the East Bay sanitary rates so the residents aren't seeing two different bills it's all comprised in the same bill this fee and its revenues cover 85 percent of the city's recycling operations and again that's the all curbside operations for residents

1:22:37businesses multi-family complexes in City vehicles with City staff City collection containers and all of the operations up at the recycling and environmental Resource Center um each year in the operational budget that comes to the council for the fiscal year um you know 12 13 for example we include

1:22:59a projected 10-year plan for the operations of the Integrated Waste Management fund which is an Enterprise fund run outside of general fund tax revenues and the like it's all fee and revenue supported and this year we projected a five percent increase to the Integrated Waste Management fee revenues

1:23:18in that fund over time especially since around 2009 the increases to these fees and then the fees in total have supported a complete restructuring of what we do on the recycling end of things in the city all new trucks all new containers the whole new recycling center a widening of what

1:23:37we accept at the curb in a significant broadening of what we accept at the recycling environmental Resource Center which as Melanie mentioned we're continuing to work on adding more and more materials over time thank you the East Bay Sand rates and con in contrast or set the maximum rates are

1:23:55set by the council but then they're levied by you space sanitary on their bills and it's important to note that there hasn't been an increase to e-space sanitary's rates since January 1 2011 that was pending the rate in operation review process which we presented to the

1:24:09council back in November of this year in fact the residential rates on the whole across the board have not changed since January 1 2011.

1:24:20the rate and operations review process which concluded back in November did project an increase that was needed for the East Bay Sand total revenues now the council also granted an extension to the franchise agreement with East Bay sanitary in November and one of the things that effectively did

1:24:37is reduce the amount of additional revenues needed so if the extension had not been granted the rates would have needed to go up more than is being proposed tonight the proposed rates include an incentive for folks to move into smaller garbage containers it's been a trend in El

1:25:00Cerrito and elsewhere in the state for at least 20 years to incentivize folks not to dispose of items in their garbage container wherein they end up in a landfill buried in the ground but to get folks to recycle compost backyard compost recycle their food scraps and

1:25:16the like and also just generally reduce and reuse which are important elements of waste reduction in general so the rates that we've proposed in some preserve those incentives but also mitigate the effects of migration which is an ongoing Trend towards these lower

1:25:33container sizes which has an inadvertent effect of decreasing the revenue that keeps these operations flowing which are largely Capital expenses the costs roughly the same to go to each person's house to collect their containers regardless of how much material is in them now there

1:25:51is a marginal cost difference in terms of what happens when it goes to the landfill or to the composting operation because of the difference in weight or volume but the capital cost to keep these systems running is largely fixed one of the other things that we've done

1:26:05with these rates is to continue to encourage um participation in the commercial food scrap programs there have been some businesses that have signed on and we're still working on getting more multi-family complexes on but it's a long-term Trend that we need to look at

1:26:18and so we did not propose any increases or changes to the food scrap programs it's both with as I mentioned there's some several benefits to the Integrated Waste Management fees having been adjusted appropriately over the last several years including complete overhaul of

1:26:34those those systems since 2010 East Bay sanitary services have changed significantly as well we went from in 2009 not being able to put food scraps in our curbside containers to being able to do so in 2010 and then transitioning from a bi-weekly service for green waste

1:26:50collection to a weekly service in the beginning of 2011. so there's been Progressive change on those Services as well I mentioned the container migration this chart demonstrates how significant this has been in terms of an impact to revenue over the last 10 or nine years or so you can see on the

1:27:09far left it's 2003 and it shows you the distribution of containers the very top line is the number of subscribers to a 35 gallon container in El Cerrito of garbage the next line down is the 20 gallon container in the next line down below is the 64. what this generally

1:27:26shows is you go from left to right is that the number of subscribers in a 35 gallon can have gone down by roughly 2 000 subscribers whereas the 20 gallon containers have increased by almost the same amount just over the period of a few years and this has had a really

1:27:41significant impact on the ability to set rates and have stable rates um it's a good it's a good thing the there's a corresponding chart that I have that is part of the budget packet that we give to you annually that shows that tonnage to landfill is also significantly decreased over that time

1:27:57so we're this is a demonstration of success but moving forward we're being careful to consider the effects of the migration and the changes to the distribution of containers in the field does to the ability to continue to keep these operations running efficiently and

1:28:10effectively here's another chart just kind of showing that the distribution over the years so in each pairing or Triad of bars you see on the far left the rate for the 20 gallon container which so the rates are set based upon garbage container size But it includes the

1:28:28Greenway Services the recycling services the household hazardous waste collection Services they're all levied on that garbage container rate so the dark blue is the 20 gallon container the light blue is the 35 and then the tan or maroon depending on what screen you're looking at is the 64

1:28:45gallon container so from 2009 to 2011 we've had roughly the same distribution between each of these um you know the the absolute dollar figure between each of them is roughly the same there's been the minor tweaks up or down but we have still this strong incentive to move into the smaller

1:29:02container sizes and as you can see there from 2011 to 2012 those rates remained flat in terms of the the actual rates we're asking you to consider during public hearing and via the resolutions tonight this is the set for the Integrated Waste Management fees which again are just a

1:29:20component of the total rates that the rate payers see on a monthly basis so you see for 20 35 64 gallon carts and then also the the commercial levels of a cubic yard one or two cubic yards and then I figured this year it was worth um including rates we haven't updated in

1:29:38the past these are the same as they've been but the compacted per yard and then the debris box load that's been the same I think for roughly 15 years but just want to make sure we're all inclusive with our resolutions this year that's for your first public hearing and

1:29:51then I'm happy to leave this one up when you get to your second but this is the proposed set of rates for the East Bay sanitary collection that's both garbage and green waste the same types of service levels all based upon garbage container size but a different component of the rates

1:30:06one question that came up is the slight difference between this chart and what you see in your resolution for Simplicity this year we're representing the commercial rates as a whole when in fact there are two different components that make up those rates and have

1:30:21historically I'm looking forward to next year maybe readjusting that a little bit so it's easier for the community the consumer the business to understand what the rate actually is because up till now it's been fairly complicated to calculate on your own thank you thank you Mr my right council

1:30:38member uh Freeman any questions for Steph and now thank you thank you council member benassini yes uh thank you Mr Schultz uh for my own notification I know we're not talking about the irrf fee and that's not passed by this body as I understand it can you just remind me or explain to me whether

1:30:56or not that fee is variable based or to what extent it's variable based on how much waste goes into the landfill it's it's a very complicated set of calculations that I am still struggling completely understand and um and may be subject to change sometime in the notificant future

1:31:13um but it is it's what it accounts for is the total cost of the the garbage disposed by El Cerrito in its entirety which is roughly 7 000 tons plus the cost of composting all of our green waste material which is roughly 3 500 pounds plus or tons plus the cost of

1:31:32running the hHw programs which are jointly engaged in at the regional level through the authority and then the cost of Education Outreach and other registration of the actual Authority staff so for El Cerrito that's a total revenue requirement of in 2013 about 1.3 million

1:31:50which is slightly up from previous years because the the tonnage fees for garbage and green waste have gone up because the costs of household hazardous waste have gone up because they continue to collect more which again is a good thing um and because there's variable

1:32:04um you know cost in terms of the programming that's done at the administration level for education and the like so those they are directly related to the amount of garbage that we dispose of as a community they are directly related to the amount of composting we do as a community and the

1:32:18household hazardous waste so yes they do vary slightly over time based on those factors okay and the second question I think on slide two or three you had the total revenue required as being an uh yeah yeah there so so we're proposing to increase the iwm we're proposing to get

1:32:38to a revenue base that's five percent above last year's is that correct yeah it's it's a little tricky because only propose it in the budget it's at the fiscal year level yet the increases take effect on the calendar year and the calendar year but it's it's what we

1:32:51projected in the 10-year plan was that rates that the revenue received would go up by five percent in 2013. calendar year 2013. and you have the same symbol a comparable number for the EBS rate the EBS is different um that was set via the extension to the franchise agreement that was done back

1:33:12on the 20th of November this year and there was a rate application developed as a result of the rate and operations review process and the subsequent negotiations about an extension between the city and the company and that stipulated a revenue requirement for 2013 that achieved all needed

1:33:32operational elements it included freezing uh the salaries for their officer positions a couple other concessions on East Bay sanitary's part and then also includes other pass-throughs such as the city's franchise fee and the like and do you think it was a similar it so right now

1:33:48the rates were working on our January 1st 2011 rates and the rates we're going to set her for January 1st 2013. correct so do you have an idea of whether or not it's about a five percent increase between January 1st 2011 and January 1st 2013. you know that's a great question

1:34:05and I wish I had calculated that in advance but I don't know the exact answer to that what I do know is that per the analysis done in the rate and operations review the amount of Revenue being received by the company in 2012 as a projection through the end of this

1:34:20year needed to increase just slightly less than five percent in order to make this Revenue requirement work great but that the method of calculating it somewhat different but the total revenue requirement against what was currently being collected by the company needed to

1:34:33increase about five percent right and that's sort of the where I was getting out with that question is that the individual rates for the different sized cans are increasing by different amounts you know for different reasons the the problem migration that you or not the

1:34:46problem the wonderful um issue that we're trying to solve and build upon um you know there's different for for the layperson my monthly bill might go up by 10 uh just for whatever can I use but overall I just wanted to get a sense of you know given where we were in 2011

1:35:04given inflation and other things that are going on what is sort of the net increase in operational require Revenue requirement that they are they're they're needing and if it's then it's around five percent so thank you that's a thank you for the clarification and

1:35:18it's exactly because of the the distribution changes that you're actually seeing rates that change different than five percent exactly okay thank you uh councilmember rapson yeah um I have a question about the iwm rates yes so what I show is that for the just I'm just

1:35:37looking at the 20 gallon and the 35 gallon cans so for the uh new rates that rate would be the same for the two different size cans right but in the past it's been different like last like this year this year it was different actually historically since about 2005 or six however they

1:35:59have been set at the same rate that was something even coming into the city of El Cerrito I asked that same question and wondered why but it represents the fact that one the city is working to mitigate the effects of migration too there's not an appreciable difference

1:36:14between how much recycling the 20 or 35 gallon can customer are is are engaging in but it was really only last year where we had different rates for each of those this reverts us back to the norm over the last five or six years which is to have them set at the same okay so I

1:36:31guess the question I'm kind of wondering about maybe I already know the answer is why do we that doesn't the 20 gallon can is that on Wheels it is now no it is now okay so what is the real reason for having a 20 gallon can historically it's been to provide a lower level service option to preserve

1:36:53the incentives for people to continue to dispose of less and less waste so what is the incentive when the price is the same well it's not this is remember just one component so the the fee set on the garbage container rate to cover the cost of recycling is the same if you're in a

1:37:1020 or 35 gallon container but your total monthly bill that you receive which covers all of the three rate components is not the same so this is just one component that's set at the same rate but the total aggregate of all of these results in variable rates depending upon

1:37:26what you're canceling okay so this is sort of like the charge for pickup it's not essentially because because the Integrated Waste Management fees are are set on the garbage container size there it's the way the city recovers the revenue to run the recycling programs

1:37:44and so there's not a direct charge for pickup in fact if you're a commercial entity with a a one cubic yard garbage container the Integrated Waste Management fee that you pay on a monthly basis is 63.66 whether you use 164 gallon container or 10 so it's just a way of of recovering the overall

1:38:03revenues needed to run those recycling programs and there's not a direct correlation to the amount of recycling I'm just talking about the two sizes which are the ones most frequently used by residential customers and so so the place where we look to encourage the the

1:38:23homeowner or our renter to um recycle more is in the other part of the rate it's in the total yeah it is essentially because it's it's set the same here it's made up for in the other components of the road that's correct okay that kind of answers my question great thank you thank you council member

1:38:42um just one comment we had a prior rate increase around 2006.

1:38:48rate increase right we they've been adjusted annually yeah and then before that 13 that's right 13 years so it's it was a long time coming so yeah prior to 2006 the Integrated Waste Management fee had not been adjusted I think it was around two or two and a half dollars at

1:39:05the time something in that ballpark and it has been increased you know gradually over the course of the last seven years mostly to be able to put us in a position to redo our entire system right okay thank you the I'm I think you've said this but I'm just going to reiterate the Integrated

1:39:25Waste Management fee is associated with the gray can or the recycling can that comes that's at our houses and I think it was the first night I was a council member four years ago we bought those cans um and they're all the same size at every house correct they are indeed

1:39:42though we do make um we have some of the older versions available for folks who just can't accommodate one of the larger containers okay and and so that's what that's the reason why we're proposing an integrated waste management fee that's the same for the both the 20 gallons can

1:39:57blue can user and the 35 gallon blue can user is because the the gray cans the same size yes uh it's not I mean essentially they're using it around the same amount yes okay and um let's see on the Integrated Waste Management fee no I have no other questions um so at this point any other questions

1:40:21for staff otherwise we'll open it up for public testimony are there any public speakers I have no speaker slips I move that we close the public testimony period seconds we have a motion to close the hearing all those in favor say aye aye opposed abstains uh show that past 5-0

1:40:42unanimously there I got it right um and are there any additional comments or questions from the council I'm going to make I'm going to make one and it's just a comment so um I think council member Abelson I think you touched on it it even though um the services for recycling are the

1:41:10same it's a policy to try and move people to dispose of less and and so I'm would encourage staff to consider uh using even our Integrated Waste Management fee in the future not tonight but in the future to potentially help people incentivize people to um reduce the amount of waste they've they

1:41:37send to the landfill so that's that's my comment um do we have a motion I move to adopt a resolution fixing and setting rates for the Integrated Waste Management fee as identified in the enacting Clause of the resolution effective January 1st 2013. second we have a motion in a second all those in

1:41:56favor say aye opposed abstentions let it show that it passed unanimously we have already had a presentation on the East Bay sanitary garbage portion so we will move to questions uh if Council has any questions of staff on this item seeing no questions we'll move to public

1:42:26testimony no speaker slips I move that we close the public hearing all those in favor say aye aye opposed or abstentions let it show that it passed unanimously any additional comments or question from Council on this item this would be the East Bay sanitary rates and I'll start

1:42:51on my left side with council member Bridges oh just one just to reiterate the question that I asked Mr Schultz which had to do with you know how we're moving from our rates from January 1st 2011 to January 1st 2013 and that the overall increase we think is if anything slightly below

1:43:11the rate of inflation I think I just wanted to I know that you haven't calculated that number exactly but your indication was that you think it's in line with or about or in line with or slightly below the rate of inflation that we've seen certainly the operating

1:43:23expenses on both sides of the East Bay Sand and the integrative Waste Management have been over that time you know at or around the rate of inflation the amount seen in terms of the net increases to the rates are above that due to the effects of migration and I'll

1:43:38also just note that of course inflation accounts for all types of goods whereas some of the inputs to this type of an industry are things like gasoline which of course are not tied to inflation in any way so thank you for answering that I'm glad you were able to come up with

1:43:53that number councilman yeah I've had occasion to study the Consumer Price Index and I know that it's a 3.2 percent for the last year for the Bay Area from the Department of Labor Statistics in the previous year was almost the same so I'm going to call attention to the

1:44:12November 20th meeting when we did meet with uh and had uh changed how we were moving forward and acknowledged that the um the the rates that we're setting tonight for East Bay sanitary uh is new and does have a a balancing fund that allows for any um extra that it may be

1:44:36collected this year to carry over to next year conversely we do make the hauler hole so we do have a Target Revenue number that's in that's presented in the agenda bill and if through migration we do not achieve that Target revenue and and for those that are not following what migration is that

1:44:58would be the beautiful graph that was shown of the lines converging it's as people move out of their 35 gallon Canon into 20 gallon cans because they they're not throwing away as much um and so it's it's that um that this graphic that is on the sidewall that is the reason we have this

1:45:21this balancing account that we presented in November where we will make up for any Revenue shortfalls as a result of achieving our policy of reducing the size of the can and therefore reducing the amount of waste that somebody's incentivized to throw away if you have a smaller can you're

1:45:43going to hopefully find other places to put your composting your food waste and your recycling So to that end I I'm going to make the same comment um we did close the gap a little bit between the 20 gallon can and the 35 gallon can this year and I can support that because

1:46:09of the revenue issues around migration but I would encourage staff to monitor that and next year at least I'm hoping that council members will Echo the fact that we we should be encouraging the continuation of migration to the smaller can reducing the opportunities for people to on

1:46:32Christmas day be quick and lazy and not take the time to sort their wrapping paper and their bows and their plastic and and such and not just throw it in the bigger blue can that they have outside because they they don't want to take the time to just to sort it because they have a small can so

1:46:56so that for that reason I would would encourage staff on it when we're here a year from now to potentially [Music] um continue the policy of of migration and plan for it in maybe other ways than um than some of the ways that were enacted this year and hopefully you guys Echo that thought

1:47:18agreed great thank you uh do I have a motion I'll make motion I moved uh to adopt a resolution establishing maximum rates that East Bay sanitary company May charge for services provided by the company as identified in the acting Clause of the resolution effective January 1st 2013.

1:47:44I second the motion we have a motion in a second any further comments seeing none uh all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed or abstentions let it show that it passed unanimously right here it is um with that we will be moving on to item seven which is policy matters 7A is

1:48:09annual city council liaison reorganization and appointments um it's a single piece of paper for those that are interested here on the dice and at home I I thank the clerk for putting it all in one place it it makes it really easy to I I highlighted my schedule so I can

1:48:29see what meetings I'll be attending this year I do we need do we need we need a motion to adopt I'm looking so this would be an opportunity for comments or questions that's right this is my appointments um with that I would like to move on to item eight Council assignments and

1:48:57liaison reports I would ask council members Abelson and benassini to report on your last assignments yes thank you and none of my commissions met in December um WIC Tech met in December and I was re-elected as chair for the new year congratulations [Applause] bye to Christina adienza who is leaving

1:49:25our employee to become a nun um and we will be hiring somebody you may all know very well uh Jerry Bradshaw to be a halftime interim executive director while he still continues here um pardon so um is Jerry planning on sleeping at any time I don't know I hope notice he did

1:49:54leave probably to go home and sleep the other thing that happened at WIC Tac that was very um Pleasant news to say the least is I may have mentioned before that there was a problem with our purse meaning that we had um it had been ruled that we were not eligible as an agency for purrs using

1:50:16the city of San Pablo account which is what they had been doing since day one and so they were working through and trying to resolve that issue which is one of the reasons that we did not just hire a permanent executive director well that issue appears to probably have been

1:50:35resolved we're very happy to say so um they're working out the details now and um we will be finishing up on the um the things that are necessary to end that and then what that means is that um Wick tack of which is this body is a member agency will become its own

1:51:00pers agency which is the retirement system used by the employees and the employees will not be penalized in any way for this having happened so um and I'm happy to say that pers was very diligent in trying to work this out with us that's it excellent um I will I would like to take this

1:51:26moment actually to give a little longer briefing than normal on the uh waste uh West County Integrated Waste Management Authority we we met last Thursday it was a longer than normal meeting we received presentations from six firms that are competing for the Post collection Services the post

1:51:54collection Services include the services we've discussed tonight for the Earth which is the recycling composting and household hazardous waste the um that we've been on a process for over a year in soliciting uh bids and we when we started we didn't think we would

1:52:20get a competitive bid process a competitive environment but we did end up with six bids uh there was a committee that had over 24 different meetings with the six bidders to evaluate their proposals both economically and what services they provided um the way we did this it was a

1:52:41statement of interest and the different firms were able to actually provide a description of what services they wanted to provide so we had some that were just Recycling and others that were just disposal with subcontractors for other services the um we were able to uh as a this is as a

1:53:08Integrated Waste Management Authority we were able to get a proposer Republic Services for public environmental services that is the current provider and they provided they're proposing to provide the increased level of services for effectively the same rate so all of

1:53:28our neighbors will actually now be going to weekly collection for compost and that it's it looks like that will include food waste which they can't do now and weekly collection of recyclables which they have not had these this increased Services uh would do on the face of it if you were to look at

1:53:53the packet that we received and got looks like it would increase the services or increase the fees for El Cerrito however it is not that way both um during the meeting the representative former public stood up and said that because El Cerrito is not going to benefit from these increased Services

1:54:16they will negotiate with us a rate for our disposal of our residuals our our blue can waste essentially um at taking into consideration the fact that we're not getting an increase in weekly collection uh of these different materials that our neighbors are are benefiting from

1:54:41therefore we should too also see a reduction in our cost um as in the future once this agreement goes into place this agreement will go into place uh January 1 2014 so we won't see an immediate change in our rates but it is something that is on the horizon uh and I talked to staff this evening

1:55:07and we will be bringing to you a more a longer presentation that actually might include some presentation from showing you some of the Strategic things discussing the um our what services we get from the Integrated Waste Management Authority but I wanted to brief you on the vote

1:55:30that we took to authorize the authority to negotiate with Republic waste Republic res right Republic Environmental Services Republic weight services so it um that that is going on on our our behalf um and uh our staff will be also negotiating with them for independent uh

1:55:56rates so that I just wanted to brief you that that was the full extent of a rather lengthy meeting um last Thursday can you tell us what the vote was uh yes I can it was not unanimous um the it was 6-1 that the I'm just gonna remember Murray is from uh Pinole uh Pinole had put this item on

1:56:24their agenda um earlier in the month to to discuss but because the the full financial terms were not available in their agenda packet they did not authorize their representative to take a vote on this so they actually he if he voted no because he wanted to defer it

1:56:45to a future meeting and so um individually he potentially was supportive but as a member of his organization he voted no so it was six one um with the panel voting no as a result of their legislative body wanting to weigh in on it thank you with that I would like to move to item

1:57:14nine and uh adjourn uh this meeting in memory of the 26 individuals in Newtown who lost their life in the last week so if we could adjourn this meeting in their memory I would appreciate it thank you adjourned