City Council Meeting March 19, 2013

0:00:02well the convene the regular city council meeting at this time let the record show that all council members are present council member Bridges would you like to lead us in a pledge of allegiance to the flag or observation of a moment of silence [Music] one nation under God indivisible with

0:00:39liberty and justice for all um thank you we're going to move on to item two I am going to start item two with the announcement of two appointments this evening we interviewed Ms danziger and we are pointing her to the Arts and culture Commission we also interviewed Miss Jones

0:01:09and and she actually showed us her world's 1989 Oakland A's World Series ring but that's not why she's being selected um we will be appointing her to the human relations Commission so I will start with that are there any other Council uh announcements no um let's see

0:01:34no I'll do it later the rest I'll just give a couple of plugs for some of the events that are coming up uh one we are going to have a free compost giveaway for El Cerrito residents this Saturday from 9 A.M to 12 p.m at the recycling center and that's always a very popular

0:01:52event so if you want to go pick up your free compost it's sort of the give back program for all the participation in the Greenways program all of our Greenways turned into compost for your garden also uh this coming Thursday the 21st Playland not at the beach located here

0:02:09on San Pablo Avenue is hosting a kickoff party for the Relay for Life event in El Cerrito so they'll be attending this event where you can learn how to get involved in the American Cancer societies programs and fundraising events and uh El Cerrito does host a Relay for Life here in our city so if

0:02:26you show up at Playland not at the beach this Thursday the 21st from six to nine you can learn more about how to participate in that program I also just want to mention that the police officers are hosting their annual tipacop event that benefits Special Olympics so thank

0:02:43you for doing that and if you'd like to support this uh this fundraising drive for Special Olympics hosted by the El Cerrito Police Department or El Cerrito Police Association you can go to Macaroni Grill here in El Cerrito at the plaza from 6 to 9 30 p.m on Thursday the

0:03:0128th so the Thursday after this one thank you very much great I've got three quick ones um first I want to acknowledge and thank our Congressman George Miller for his coming to El Cerrito at the Harding School on Saturday and answering questions in a town meeting

0:03:22he ran late and had to apologize profusely to his wife um I also want to acknowledge that I represented the city of El Cerrito in the Albany little league and the Albany Berkeley girls softball league parades on Saturday we have quite a number of our young residents who play in those

0:03:43leagues and I was there to um to welcome them to the new season and we had a ceremony tonight a swearing-in ceremony where we swore in a number of explorers Cadets and officers into our police force and it was [Music] um quite a privilege to be among all of those exceptional people who are

0:04:09dedicated to our safety and and service for our communities so I wanted to thank the chief for including us in that ceremony and it was a wonderful ceremony uh does he manager any staff Communications with that we'll move on to item three which is should be if it's still the

0:04:30same Communications oral Communications from the public we have two speakers mayor the first is Liz Ruland sure as you come to the podium let me let you know that we do have a three minute time limit and there is a lighting system that you can't see because that computer is blocking it but

0:04:51it trust me there's a green light for start yellow for a minute and red to stop there it is thank you thank you thank you good evening mayor Lyman and members of the council my name is Liz Ruland I'm the manager of the El Cerrito library and I live in Berkeley I wanted to

0:05:08invite you all to our 100th birthday party for the El Cerrito Library this will be taking place on Friday June 14th the actual anniversary falls on October 31st but we're holding the party on June 14th I have some packets here for you with invitations to the to the party and

0:05:28we certainly hope you can all make it it is co-sponsored by the friends of the El Cerrito Library the El Cerrito Library New Library community campaign the El Cerrito Library historical or sorry the El Cerrito historical society and the city of El Cerrito so thank you very

0:05:43much for being a co-sponsor um I also want to let you know about the 100th anniversary of the Contra Costa County Library which is also in 2013 this year we are having a big centennial celebration July 21st in Pleasant Hill and finally I've included in the packet

0:06:00a a copy of the Contra Costa County County Clips publication which highlighted the county library this month thank you very much thank you next speaker is Al Miller good evening mayor Lyman council members uh I'm going to mention something now but it's not at all intended to

0:06:25embarrass Liz because she wasn't at our meeting last night but the group of citizens are trying to develop a Grassroots support for our new library had a meeting last night and one of the things that was decided is that we have changed our name we are no longer the El Cerrito or the

0:06:48new library Campaign Committee where now the El Cerrito Library Foundation so we're in the process of filing the papers to make that a state approved legal activity but we figured nobody would mind us since we're not doing any foundation collection funding or anything we didn't see any

0:07:12conflict with that the main reason I came up here tonight was to make a comment about the Steve Sanitary District 100th anniversary I notice you're addressing one aspect of that in uh agenda items tonight thank you very much if it uh passes but the thing I wanted to remind you and

0:07:36excite issue an invitation to you on Saturday May 18th we're having an open house at our Prestige office building A equivalent of a corporate yard at 7 500 Schmidt Lane right across the street from our award-winning Recycling and environmental Resource Center be from one to four

0:08:02and it's just going to be an informal Gathering to help us say thanks to people and to hopefully give people a chance to come and enjoy some light Libations refreshments and learn a little more about what we do so that's Saturday May 18th from 1 to 4 pm thank you thank you

0:08:29any other speakers seeing none will move on to item four presentations this evening if you've come to listen to the Contra Costa County district attorney Mr Peterson is unable to make it back from a a prior commitment in the South Bay so we will not be hearing a

0:08:49presentation from him with that we would like to have a presentation from Chief Moyer about the Northern California Special Olympics award for fundraising efforts yes good evening mayor Lyman council members Mr Hannon I am Sylvia Moyer your police chief and this evening I'm

0:09:10pleased to highlight the community collaboration and charitable commitment that your Police Department made in 2012 in support of Special Olympics the El Cerrito Police Department received an award from Special Olympics of Northern California as a top five producer in

0:09:28large part because of the commitment and Leadership of Lieutenant Steve benini who I I feel is behind me and and Sergeant Sean Maples they really rallied the troops created the vision did a lot of the heavy lifting and encouraged others to participate and the men and

0:09:46women of the El Cerrito Police Department participated uh eagerly together these two organized typicop the law enforcement torch run and the bike to Bridges events these events raise enough money to send nearly 90 special Olympians to Regional and state events at no cost to the athlete or their

0:10:09family the pride and spirit of competition for the special Olympian is immeasurable and the joy that they have and that they express is is heartwarming and really reminds us of how important this contribution is in their lives it's also important for their families

0:10:27because their families either get a brief respite from caring for their special Olympian or the families get to embrace the joy with their family member their athlete as they participate so it is with great pride that I accept this award on behalf of the very caring

0:10:45compassionate and committed employees of the El Cerrito police department and I'd like to bring up Sanchez who is representing Special Olympics of Northern California law enforcement torch run to say a few words and then I'll hand this very nice plaque to Lieutenant benini

0:11:06thank you ladies and gentlemen for inviting um Special Olympics to come out and thank you El Cerrito for their participation and support of Special Olympics I'm also a parent of an athlete and been involved with Special Olympics for 20 years and not only have El

0:11:22Cerritos supported with the awareness and with our athletes and giving them confidence and self-esteem is many opportunities for competition and we call it training for Life over the past three years the event Bike the bridges has raised close to two hundred thousand

0:11:38dollars so it has really meant so much to athletes and the parents and it also engages the athletes to become very active community members and taxpayers so thank you very much for your support thank you Miss Sanchez good evening on behalf of Sergeant Maples and I and

0:12:01chief Moyer I want to extend our thanks to the community as a whole although the El Cerrito Police Department received the award it it's not possible without the community support from our residents here in El Cerrito I'm not only proud of our officers and their involvement but

0:12:14I'm proud of the community within El Cerrito they support our events they support the tip a cop we raise as much money at our typical as the cities of Berkeley and some other large metropolitan areas it's fun to come out and serve the people for the tip of cops it's it's a great joy of

0:12:30ours to be part of the bike the bridges for those of you that don't know this bike to Bridges thing started between uh Sean Maples and I and one other officer from Hercules Police Department standing in traffic court one day we figured what else can we do to come up with something

0:12:43that's not only a competitive event but that we can raise money for Special Olympics so talking back and forth it started as a challenge then became an event then became this big thing it is now we hope to grow the event we're thankful for everybody that shows up and

0:12:56rides each year we're thankful for your support the city managers board the assistant city manager It's a Wonderful event we often ask our new officers that are coming to interview for a job what other tasks or jobs do law enforcement have outside of arresting somebody or issuing

0:13:11a ticket and sometimes they're they don't have a real good answer it's difficult for them so we talk a little bit about Special Olympics and some of the fundraising efforts that our Public Safety officers go through some of the things that they can do and it begins to

0:13:22broaden their perspective and these are the same kinds of people who step up and take on those roles later in their career the tip a cop is now run by another officer who coordinates everything and it's a huge task but it's those officers that see the benefits of

0:13:35that type of Community Support so thank you all we're very very proud of our department been very very proud of our community thank you lieutenant thank you [Applause] okay with that we will move on to item five the consent calendar may or may I poll item 5B for discussion

0:14:05you may can I move items 5 AC and D second we have a motion on the floor it's been moved and seconded all those in favor say aye aye opposed abstentions let the record show that it passed unanimously one of the items in in Mr Miller alluded to it before one of the items is

0:14:30a proclamation commending stiege Sanitary District on its hundred years of service so I don't know if I if Mr Miller we're going to get this framed and we'll get it sent over to you at some point uh at the appropriate time but thank you for coming and I look forward to that

0:14:48um at this time we'll discuss item five b which is League of California cities bylaw amendments uh yeah actually you may start with a question I'm hoping that we've that uh our representative councilmember Abelson will be able to answer questions great um just reading through the materials

0:15:10that were in the packet I I just had a couple questions we're considering amen we're considering as a city to submit I assume it's one vote um which would um either vote Yes or No to consider these two amendments um one having to do with resolutions being submitted to the league for

0:15:28presentation of the general assembly and the this resolution would make it so that at least five or more cities um need to be in concurrence in order to submit a resolution and the second one has to do with changing the vote for the league board from 50 plus one to a

0:15:46two-thirds vote in order to take positions on Statewide ballot measures so I I was just if you're able to provide any discussion about why these amendments are needed I would love to hear it I am I wasn't aware that this was coming uh however I I do have some background

0:16:04information on it just for my um from being on a policy committee in particular from being on the administrative services policy committee and um they're they're pretty separate issues uh the first one is um there needs to be at least five or more City officials or five or more

0:16:25cities and the purpose of that is to make sure that the league doesn't spend its time handling issues that only pertain to for example one city because from time to time a city will have an issue over something like say a zip code that's that's been one that came up

0:16:45and it only impacts that one city so it's not really a league of California cities issue and so that that the purpose of this is to codify that we don't really handle the kinds of issues that only impact one city even if it's a it's not speaking to whether or not that

0:17:04one issue might be good bad or indifferent it's rather speaking to who the organization is and so um so that's my that's really my only comment on that one and on the two-thirds vote issue it's kind of an interesting one I've been around long enough there to be on the short side of

0:17:27issues that I thought were really important such as education issues where the league ended up by a bare majority of maybe one or two people of those present and voting in the general assembly taking a position that in my opinion was countered to the best interests of school children of the

0:17:47State of California so my side lost by one but by having the current rule that would mean by just having one more vote above 50 percent the league would be put in a position of actively supporting in a campaign a position which only won more than 50 percent of the

0:18:09members agreed upon what that tends to do the organization is um create well that's a divisive issue when it's like that and what's that's caused to happen over time is um cities withdraw from the league and um that sort of thing divisions which is in our area are my our division is

0:18:33Alameda Contra Costa County we have a large division but sometimes it's just one County sometimes it's many counties if they're little but the Visions will uh want to withdraw and secede from the whole group because of this so the purpose of this sort of thing is um

0:18:53is to prevent um so that the league isn't put in a position of being active in a campaign where there isn't a lot of support um you know where as I just just described it so that's really all I can say I don't know if I I mean maybe if you ask me a question I could answer more but yeah that that was

0:19:16really helpful I think the two-thirds voted that the first resolution seemed to make a lot of sense that you only want to handle issues of Statewide importance of at least a certain number of cities um are interested in them the second one was the only one that gave me a bit of

0:19:28pause because I noticed just in the last it seems like it's a bit hard for the league to take positions on Statewide ballots and maybe that's okay that they tend to not have a no um you know no position statement on some of the Statewide ballot issues that might be fine the only other issue I was

0:19:45thinking is that there's already sort of a Waiting by you know each city has sort of a vote regardless of how large or small they are so that was my only other thought is that you already have a system where you're not you know it doesn't matter whether or not you're a

0:20:00city of 500 000 or 2 000 you get an equal voting and I was just concerned about making that's exactly right but it's close enough to being exactly right that so this is not a really about it two-thirds this is not about two-thirds of the voters right two-thirds of this

0:20:17cities right so um most of the Cities who vote in fact are small cities most of the large cities from what I've been able to tell don't even come to the meetings and vote at all so so that means it's but there's a high potential for a large percent of the voting voters of

0:20:36the State of California not to be represented in the votes that occur here and and actually most of the um uh issues before the legislature are not uh there's no position taken by the league one way or the other so they they actually have to weed there's just so many of them what the

0:20:59league actually does is just determine which ones they consider are relevant to the cities of California it looks like this one's only with regard to Statewide ballot measures so only the propositions yeah so this but so this so there's a so really the league only takes a

0:21:18position when there's a specific reason to do so that has an impact on cities so can you speak to why they chose super majority versus something like 60 percent no because because it's the I mean that though here we are out there you know um suffering from a two-thirds majority

0:21:39on our budgets and I was just curious if they had discussed why they moved all the way to two-thirds this is a this is about I believe the board of directors and I wasn't privy to that conversation um a question for Council uh when I look at the actual ballot it does look like

0:21:56we can take these items up separately so I just wanted to find out if that is something based on our advertising that we would be able to do based on on the way is noticed the way it was noticed in the agenda yeah I believe so um are there any speakers that would like

0:22:30to speak they can't speak on this item because there's consent right request to speak um any other further discussion okay I would like to take these items separately um does yours so the first one would be with regards to um requiring five or more cities the question the ballot is does your city

0:22:55vote to approve the amendment of article uh six section two of the League's bylaws relating to submission of resolutions to the League's General Assembly as set forth in the proposed resolution and Incorporated by reference in this ballot that's the first question can I get a

0:23:11motion so moved I've got a motion second I've got a second by by councilmember Bridges all those in favor say yes I yes opposed abstentions let that one show that it passed unanimously the second question is does your city vote to approve the addition of article

0:23:307 section 16 to the League's bylaws relating to the league board vote threshold to take positions on Statewide ballot measures as set forth in the proposed resolution and Incorporated by reference in this ballot and let the show that notwithstanding any other provision of these bylaws the league

0:23:47board may take a position on a Statewide ballot measure by two-thirds vote of those directors present so that's the question in hand do I have a motion I move that we consider that question you have a second I have a second all those in favor say aye a little confused

0:24:06confused here yeah that we talk about it more we know what we have a motion we approve it okay yeah what what what are you saying are you in favor of two-thirds or not are you saying yes I guess my motion was to take it up and vote I am not moving that we approve it so those that are

0:24:29in favor of approving it please say yes yes I'm gonna say yes okay those who are not in favor of approving it please say no no let the record show is a 3-2 vote um and it's a yes and I can make a follow-up comment to what to me a Yes means uh what a Yes means is that

0:24:54um the um what it would the standard for the league being active on a measure is different than um majority rule um thank you um moving on to item seven a Ward Urban Greening consultant contract and miss mintz's approaching the podium for a presentation a brief presentation

0:25:50greetings mayor city council my name is Melanie Mintz and I am the city's environmental services division manager and I'm here tonight excuse me to recommend the council authorize the city manager to execute a Professional Services agreement with the consultant

0:26:05firm Mig to prepare the city's Urban Greening plan our first urban Greening plan in tonight's presentation I want to give provide a little bit of background on the urban Greening plan including providing a brief summary of the state state grant program that is funding the

0:26:20project an overview of urban Greening itself and both the Grant and the city's purposing goals for the project quickly go over the consultant selection process and then I'll turn it over to Mig to tell you a little bit more about their firm their proposal and their approach to

0:26:35Urban Greening in proposition 84 the safe drinking water water quality and Supply flood control River and Coastal protection Bond Act of 2006 authorized 17 million dollars for the purpose of creating Urban Greening plans to serve as Master documents to guide and coordinate Urban

0:26:52Greening projects in local jurisdictions across the state the state's strategic growth Council which oversees the program is composed of a broad cross-section of agencies representing reflecting the complexity and breadth required to meet the state's environmental goals

0:27:07the council includes representatives from the business transportation and housing agency Health and Human Services Cal EPA the natural resource agency and the office of planning and research and I mentioned this because it provides insights into the goals and strategies

0:27:19that will be pursuing in developing our Urban grading plan a key goal of the Strategic growth council is to improve California's urban areas by supporting development of Greener healthier public places development and implementation of the urban Greening plan supports the states

0:27:35and the city's environmental goals including our climate action plan and ab32 at the recommendation of the city's Environmental Quality committee and Parks and Recreation Commission and with approval of City councils staff applied for the competitive Urban Greening

0:27:48planning Grant and was awarded 239 thousand dollars to complete the plan through the beginnings of this project starting in parks and rec Parks and Recreation and the Environmental Quality committee and to assure that the planning process of inclusive staff has

0:28:02convened an urban Greening task force to help advise staff on the planning process review the RFP make sure that our kind of a big scope was representative of what the community was hoping for but also importantly to help extend um the consultant and staff's abilities

0:28:19to reach out into the community to bring input into this plan the urban Greening task force currently consists of members of The Parks and Recreation Commission the Environmental Quality committee the committee on Aging the tree committee and City co-sponsored groups the trail trackers and community

0:28:34garden Network we've also reached out to the arts and culture commission crime prevention committee and we'll reach out to the human relations Commission because diversity and inclusion of a underrepresented communities has continues to be an important priority

0:28:47for the task force so quickly I thought I'd try to Define urban Greening just to create a bit of context but hopefully through this Urban grading class process the city of El Cerrito will be able to Define for ourselves what this means it's a relatively new field

0:29:05um it's related to Parks and Recreation planning and urban sustainability efforts Urban greeting however considers not only Recreation and activity needs and opportunities but integrates the names to Foster good Urban Design walkability Place making active living

0:29:19resource conservation biodiversity economic vitality and Community resiliency the needs assessment that we will be doing is a part of this which is a really important work product and will overlap with what you would typically do for a Parks and Recreation needs assessment especially as it looks

0:29:35at activities and demographics um Urban Greening however in particular as it aims to really transform the urban environment recognizes also the constraints in urban environments such as the lack of land the of available open space the high cost of land and conflicting needs for

0:29:53that land as such Urban Greening uniquely tries to improve a city's quality of life through many small interventions finally Arab and greeting plan will aim to identify ways to improve both existing parks and green spaces improve access to them as well as identify new ways to meet our

0:30:08community's desire and need for such places so the purpose of doing this plan is to really dig deeper into and help Implement City goals plans and policies such as those identified in the Strategic plan which is still in its draft form which include deepening a

0:30:26sense of place and Community developing and rehabilitating public facilities and Community focal points promoting Community Health and fostering environmental sustainability Citywide the general plan these are just a select few but calls for developing a green infrastructure initiative and this will

0:30:41touch on many parts of that improving bicycle and pedestrian access provide and providing adequate diverse and accessible Recreation opportunities for all looking at all of our available spaces the climate action plan of course which is under review now and will be brought

0:30:57to the council for adoption in May promote spay-friendly tree planting and Landscaping that conserves resources calls for creating a walkable physical environment and of course importantly encourages residents to reduce vehicle miles traveled which the urban grading

0:31:12plan also aims to support the San Pablo Avenue specific plan underway also calls for Parks public places and Landscaping is key to revitalizing our commercial corridor and our Economic Development strategy of 2006 also calls for improving the physical environment and creating a

0:31:27sense of place so that Urban greeting plan aims to to help with all of these goals its purpose is also to Foster through a strong Community engagement process as well as the task force the strong Community Vision and support for the results it aims to support staff and Council to

0:31:44make decisions that are data driven and we will be that will be through the needs assessment as well as through an opportunities analysis and other um this analyzes that will we with Mig will be conducting I mean it importantly it advances implementation by providing a framework

0:32:00that includes discrete projects fundable Concepts and most importantly really has a sense of what the community's priorities are so specifically the goals of the plan will be to conduct a robust needs assessment as I've mentioned previous we want that needs assessment to be very reflective

0:32:16of diverse of our diverse population and demographics and to be context driven that is people living in different areas of City may experience green spaces differently one of the products that we'll be using as a part of the input process will be an interactive map

0:32:30process where we will also be able to we'll have to figure out how to do this in a way that people might be able to identify what part of town they live in without necessarily providing their address but so that we can get a sense if how different areas of the town are

0:32:42experiencing their green places what their needs are but we will also be doing connectivity analysis and proximity analysis to also make sure that various needs are being met in proximity to where people are living again so our one of our goals will be to ensure broad participation

0:32:56um both the state's goals and ours will be to develop projects with multiple benefits this is both important from a financial standpoint but also these projects seem to just be the uh well in some ways give you the best for your buck um we'll be aiming to have look for

0:33:10projects improve connectivity and accessibility that promote healthy and healthy active community that provide resource conservation that's both financial and human resource conservation and natural resource conservation that can contribute to our ghg reduction goals and importantly that

0:33:26they also support economic vitality and place making again I mentioned that fostering implementation and project Readiness is also an important goal so issued our request for proposals um the urban Greening task force reviewed the draft request to make sure that it was also meeting you know the

0:33:42the goals of both the Environmental Quality committee and the Parks and Recreation Commission in particular we released it in January proposals were due a month later we received interest from 11 firms stated uh submitted a statement of Interest four complete proposals were received and after

0:33:57reviewing and ranking those with both staff from the recreation department public works department environmental services and City manager's office as well as the task force we decided to interview all four all of them had differing but important strengths we developed an interview format that was

0:34:13going to enable us to really get a sense of how well the consultant's qualification matched El Cerrito and El Cerrito's goals and we also did a simulated task force work meeting to see how well they could work with our diverse interests in trying to um develop a public involvement strategy

0:34:30was our example exercise we wanted to really look for a team that could provide the best fit and we also saved time for questions and answers to get into each team's work plan so the majority of the task force selected Mig as our our team to move forward and there were several reasons

0:34:48which I hope you'll see in their presentation but we felt that they had excellent qualifications in that melded the various opportunities and represented the various opportunities that we see the urban Greening plan providing we felt they had an inspiring vision for what Urban Greening could do

0:35:03here in El Cerrito and they had also a comprehensive understanding of the challenges of of Greening a built-out constrained City we were excited by their understanding and ideas for public engagement which were supported by both in-person Outreach opportunities as well as strong

0:35:20use of Technology and we also saw and felt that they had their team offered a lot of synergies as our consultant working on our San Pablo Avenue specific plan they really understood the role Urban Greening um could play for us in terms of transforming really El Cerrito's Gateway

0:35:36um to the best of our community so with that I will turn it over to um Meg actually one moment is I'd like to also introduce Emily alter I forgot to mention she's also on the task force and you met her previously when we talked about star and she's a Environmental Services intern with a

0:35:52strong planning background who's also going to be playing a key role in helping to make this Urban Greening plan a success so I'll turn it over to McCool from Mig and take any questions afterwards if that's foreign thank you council members my name is mukul Malhotra I'm the principal and

0:36:19Urban Design director at MIT I'm going to present a very brief presentation about a proposal like Melanie said we're just going to talk about our approach and how we want to meaningfully engage the community and the different city members in this exciting project as

0:36:37Melanie already mentioned this project is all about identifying projects policies and strategies to create an interconnected network of green spaces accommodate the changing infill growth and improve really the quality of life and environment for both the existing

0:36:52and the future El Cerrito residents like with all projects before we jump into any project we like to understand what the city is and El Cerrito is a beautiful city so if we step back say about 120 years you'll see on the map you know what else Cerrito really was

0:37:10um and in the 1890s that's what it looked like but today a it's a pretty much a built-out city but this built out City actually provides a beautiful Foundation of creating a unique Urban Greening plan um as you know more than me we have a great network of uh streets with of

0:37:30course the BART and the quarter mile radiuses around the BART station um there's a great system existing system of Open Spaces as you can see in the map itself and these are complemented by different Community amenities such as school Sparks and other community facilities in addition

0:37:49there is a network that already exists and it's also being planned as far as having bicycle connectivity and of course the wonderful Ohlone Greenway which is getting better and better with each passing day but as far as the urban green then is concerned keeping this

0:38:06mind this wonderful Foundation I think so the this project provides an opportunity for the city and the community to explore what do we do with this wonderful Green Belt that is we get as a result of the East Bay Regional Park towards the North or to the East and then of course the blue belt where

0:38:25with the regional trail system that is being developed and strengthened as we talk about and what opportunities this Urban Greening project provides to actually connect these together and knit all the green Open Spaces together so working on different Urban Greening

0:38:43projects we looked at what were the specific opportunities and benefits for the city of El Cerrito and of course the first is like Melanie mentioned there is a great opportunity to improving the habitat quality the biological diversity within the city itself and it can go

0:39:00towards a real range that goes from of course natural semi-natural to manicured um they will we will be understanding what are the opportunities to improve the water and air quality by the different interventions that we explore and discuss as part of this project of

0:39:18course a key benefit is education and environmental stewardship so that the people who live and work in the city actually own up to the improvements that we are talking about and this is complemented by human development people of all ages income groups can actually

0:39:37benefit but especially our children and that's something we have to always keep in mind as we are looking for benefits in this project identity and sense of place is uh is a key element uh an outcome that we can get out of this project and that's what we would be exploring as other cities

0:39:55have done over the past few years for example if you look at Portland and you look at the network of green spaces that they have it helps create a unique sense of identity similarly Savannah that was planted or planted much long time ago had the um amenity and the vision to actually

0:40:14create a unique set of network of green open spaces and streets but you know newer cities such as Davis which is more similar to El Cerrito have also come up with the new overlay of interconnected open system so the big question that we will be exploring and asking the

0:40:33community of El Cerrito is what should be the unique identity that Urban Greening can provide to this beautiful city it definitely adds to the real estate values studies after studies that have shown that if you live next to well-designed paths and Open Spaces it

0:40:49actually increases your your property values and that's something that we do want to invest as we go about looking at different improvements there are a wide variety of interventions that we foresee some of them have been already outlined in the RFP and something we built upon

0:41:06looking at the existing Park systems how do we better utilize them so that we can better Pro program them also looking at our schools and if there are opportunities for shared facilities but also individual open spaces so that they are better utilized that goes along with

0:41:24the great work that you guys have done along San Pablo Avenue in transforming San Pablo Avenue with the streetscape improvements and if we can continue to build on them with different green streets on other parts of San Pablo Avenue as well as other streets within

0:41:41the city itself and then of course soil we have worked with City's public works department and explored that if we come up with the right soil mix we can really transform and improve the overall water quality uh within the city and the larger watershed area we have a great

0:41:59system of trails uh especially along the Ohlone Greenway we want to clearly build upon it look at your existing utility corridors and see if we can achieve what we have achieved in other cities like Baldwin Hills out here which transform the utility corridors into vibrant open

0:42:17spaces and then also see what are the best practices out there that different cities have successfully adopted such as San Francisco the pavement of Park systems which is looking at every inch of the public right-of-way and by the way you know nearly 32 percent of the

0:42:34city's land is in the public right-of-way in the city of El Cerrito so we have an opportunity to look at each and every piece of land how it can be transformed into use open space and also open space that works it's more pervious and works for our children and for our families too we are also going

0:42:53to integrate the latest and best thinking that has been brought about by complete streets three streets that's something that we have worked with the National Endowment for the Arts and cities such as Los Angeles which I think so in some ways is applicable to even

0:43:07the city of El Cerrito to look at each and every street and see is there opportunity to make them more multimodal but at the same time provide increased opportunities to better quality to food access open space amenities and so and so forth and that's what other cities in

0:43:26the Bay Area are doing it right now getting all this feedback we will put it together in design standards so that we will apply to individual parks within the street City itself analyze the different activity analysis within each box so that we can better program and

0:43:43better use them and also do connectivity analysis it's not just good enough to have great Parks but we should feel comfortable and have good access to these Open Spaces too this will be built on a very strong Foundation of interagency coordination you can see all

0:44:00the people and agencies that we really want to integrate with including the schools but different landowners such as Regency because it's important we get a successful product but at the end of the day it it is based on a very strong Foundation of community engagement and

0:44:18our basis for connecting with the communities based on identifying who are our key audiences that we want to engage what is the specific Outreach methods and outcomes we want to achieve and also scan the entire city to get multiple perspectives we prefer to get rid of the

0:44:35diversity of opinion to come up with a good product Melanie already mentioned the task force meetings but overall our approach is to go where the people are as opposed to tell them to just come to our community workshops and to make that happen we will use um we will actually physically go to

0:44:53them but also use the the internet and that includes online surveys that will allow for quick input you could tweak this survey in less than three to five minutes and it's a very efficient and effective way to get people who are very busy but this will be complemented with

0:45:12us individually going to different uh neighborhoods and actually doing what we call intercept surveys so we will ask the same questions in the communities online survey but be able to go to people who are again very busy and do not have access to the internet interactive mapping there will be a

0:45:30website on the city connected to the city's website that gives the people an opportunity to put in their remarks and say what they like what they don't like how would they like to see it improve um and this will be part of a larger interactive website like Melanie said

0:45:46this will also provide us an opportunity to understand where are the people coming from and what are the chief concerns and needs these workshops they will be uh three workshops that will be held over the course of the project that will document the key uh ideas that the

0:46:03people generate and they will be interactive design charades and we will complement them with what today's generation is into which is Twitter blogs so and so forth we also planning to use interactive polling so that the people who usually don't raise their voice in community workshops get an

0:46:21equal opportunity to say what they want to and we can use that in different parts of the project including making sure that we help create a very strategic prioritized list of improvements and at the end of the day this needs to ensure Community ownership and pride because at the end of the day

0:46:40when we leave it's the people who live and work in the city of El Cerrito who are going to help implement the urban Greening plan thank you thank you any questions from uh Council yes yes um this state grant that we have is it only for planning we can't use it for

0:47:01implementation and it so the answer is yes we only can do this we've explored and I know is used in other places kind of tatties like we could go out and see if a place works a certain way so we could do you know as a part of the public involvement process but there's no

0:47:20capital projects that are allowed as a part of this um we do have a separate Urban grading Capital grant for another project that you'll be hearing about again and then it of course sets us up to be able to hopefully apply for future grants there's only um the last round of urban

0:47:33Greening Grant proposals are are about to become due okay so the reason I asked that is I I like the presentation I think it it looks good and but absolutely everything we're going to do is going to require funds and nowhere did I hear is part of the planning is

0:47:52identifying resources and maybe even writing some proposal or helping so I would like to use the planning money to move us closer to implementation because we have climate action plan the star process the Strategic plan even going back we had some great work done with

0:48:09the Prince of Wales plan uh I just don't want us to get too many plans stacked on each other without moving forward aggressively for implementation because I don't think what's being proposed here is that magical that difference that's been done in other communities I'd like to pick

0:48:29some concrete areas we can Implement and go after the resources to do that and I'd like to see that be an important part of the plant but um one response to that is we did actually add in we haven't said that but we are including development of five top ranking Concepts

0:48:45and I'm having those Concepts also have cost estimates and so therefore be ready to apply for Capital grants okay can we use some of the planning money to hire Grant Riders we can um yes and we can write the grants I think that really what happens when grants come around is we don't have

0:49:03enough sometimes we don't have capital projects that have been fully vetted and identified and gone through a planning process to be ready so I think that on that note there is a concept proposal for urban green and Grant projects and we do have one in mind that we will

0:49:17apply for and we'll bring to you so the the the um I'm getting complete support of your thinking here which is we want to see the stuff on the ground and so that is I'm more interested in action than planning I just want to go on record councilmember Benson great thank you

0:49:34Melanie um I do just as a sort of one thing that came to mind when you were pointing that out that I wanted to bring up is As I know that the parks and rec department has been thinking a lot about a Park's master plan so I do appreciate what you're saying and I'm glad Melanie

0:49:47that you gave the definition that really kind of talks about how the urban Greening plan is similar to something that I think a lot of us have heard of before which is a Parks and Rec master plan but it also is sort of an addendum to that um so thank you for that definition

0:50:00because as I was reading through the materials I kept having to remind myself of what Urban green what comprise an urban Greening plan um just one question as I was reading through the materials I noticed there's a plan to engage underrepresented communities and really

0:50:16um you know bring folks out to these sessions or go to those to go to where the people are as the principal noted from Mig um I know that we've been thinking a lot about this is how do we reach people outside of The Usual Suspects of sort of our typical pool of folks who come to

0:50:32these sorts of meetings so I did notice that there was a task where you would have a plan to do that and that's great but I would also suggest that we think about not only a plan to engage those folks but also at the end of the engagement process that we look back and

0:50:46say how many people did we get who don't speak English at home how many people do we get who are in multi-family dwelling units or not you know just trying to think of metrics that are not overly personal to collect from people but some way of identifying that we've gotten a

0:51:01broad a broad swath of the community and and I I if you if you care to respond now that's fine or otherwise it's just a comment for you I I can tell you a couple things so what we have thought of partly that will be involving the human relations commission so they can help

0:51:14ensure diversity the other is identifying working with them or others to identify kind of Key Community leaders in some of the populations that we know are underrepresented so that we can reach out to them and see how to best get involved as a part of mig's work scope we do too have two focus

0:51:28group study sessions that we will schedule that will be specifically with non-english speaking groups who will aim to Target two non-english dominant groups and actually have focus groups that does really ask them and then I think when we talked about we'll have to

0:51:43figure out how to do it but at which metrics we should be tracking as we're doing that so that we do both learn from it are able to document it and I think key when we were talking about the digital online map and other things is being able to look at the city and

0:51:55recognizing that context is very important people living are living in different contexts in the city or bring different cultural backgrounds in terms of their relationship to parks open space streets so I think all of that and we'll be working with the task force if you have

0:52:07anything more specific um also Mig does Benchmark kind of these goals so if we know that we do want that involvement and it's not working we would try to change people back and change course yeah exactly I love the idea of going to where the people are I mean there's so many

0:52:23um times you might come to a planning meeting in City Hall and you're kind of like where is everybody but they're all I mean you hear them at on the parks you hear them in the parks on Saturdays or you hear them in all these places and I love the idea of going out to where they

0:52:34are I also just want to make two other consultant notes to Mig which is we stuck exactly to our project timeline that was in the RFP today is March 19th and we are considering the council award and as a consultant who applies to a lot of these that's extremely rare and I

0:52:50loved the way the interview format was done I've gone to a lot of interviews as a consultant and I have never been asked to demonstrate you know my expertise so I really appreciate that you guys did that and I think that probably gave you you know your selection process was able

0:53:04to be made on what the Consultants were actually demonstrating rather than what they say they can do so I I thought those were two great items and I I loved the visuals that Mig was showing I think those are really stimulating I loved I'm really excited to see what you come up

0:53:19with in terms of the public presentations or the different surveys because I think those the question that was at the end was very abstract I think at the end of the presentation um the question was we want to know what the residents and the visitors have in mind about Urban Greening and

0:53:35connectivity and that and that sort of language is not always speaking to everybody but the visuals are things I think that people can really respond to so I'm excited to see how those come together as you as we reach out to community members on the plan thank you

0:53:48Council memberson uh yeah I'm very excited about this plan um and I think the reason I'm very excited about the plan is not because it's another planning exercise and I understand what council member Friedman is saying because I've been through many of those processes

0:54:07um and so much so that I got really really tired of those processes quite a long time ago however um I am glad I think this one hopefully is is first of all it's a different topic so uh I think that's one difference but the um other thing is I think what this does that is different

0:54:27as I read what I'm reading and hear what I'm here and heard what I heard today is that in my mind what it does is extends the kind of work that we've done on San Pablo Avenue to the rest of the community and that I find very exciting um because I mean the idea that what

0:54:47about a third of our space is actually available to do things I mean I never would have guessed that that was the number um public space this is too right it's not I can't remember where was it but 30 about 30 of our Our Land city is in public right away is in streets yeah so

0:55:07that's excluding the privately held uh green spaces so that means that we really can make some beautiful and um exciting uh changes to the urban Greening plan through the Arabic Greening plan but the other thing that I think is actually pretty important um uh in this kind of a process that I'm

0:55:31hoping will occur and I'm hoping you'll tell me yes um is that there are planning processes and there are planning processes but what I'm hoping this one will be is the kind that will make projects shovel ready as they sometimes say so that the next step is construction we can shop

0:55:48things projects out for applications for funding and get the money because we're actually ready to go is that what this is um let me I just one point to that and it also addresses council member Friedman's point which is in addition to having the projects ready

0:56:07um Recreation director and Parks and Recreation have indicated that sometimes it's difficult when there is a pot of money for example like measure WWE or others that we haven't always gone through a process that we really haven't had a very inclusive process that we

0:56:19actually know our we do pursue projects as as singular projects we do know councils I think we have a good sense of yours in the community's goals as staff and we pursue projects but we don't know really what we're missing we haven't looked at it completely so yes uh I think

0:56:33implementate doing this plan to be very very implementation focused and I think most of our planning efforts continue to be very implementation focused and at the same time recognizing that the value of plans helps you avoid missing underrepresented communities

0:56:47opportunities you hadn't identified or not being ready because actually from a planning from a those that are giving money for capital projects want to know that you've not only identified a product but you've done your planning you're both ready shovel ready and that

0:56:59includes that you've got good Community buy-in so implementation Focus yes so does it does it go a step further though than just getting input from the community to taking that input and then turning it into um uh steps it does so at a variety of levels it'll be a whole catalog of

0:57:19identified projects and their support it will also be five projects that are ready to go immediately to be submitted and others that are um the concepts are well identified and we'll be looking at developing also financing strategies and talking about grants or outside funding is always is

0:57:35always the best but also just looking at other ways and then I also want to point out again that resource conservation just like with the Avenue the LED lights and others saving money in our existing Landscapes is also money and natural resources is also a goal and then the

0:57:50other last comment I would like to make is this in and of itself was a we won a grant in order to do this so that they're a highly competitive grants and I think I don't have all the numbers here but I think we ranked seventh out of um 25 that were awarded but over a

0:58:08hundreds were submitted so so I I would somehow think that that would uh if this planning process is well done which is what I am assuming it will be um and the presentation tonight made me think that even more uh but I would assume that it would give us a foot in

0:58:26the door for that next process I think that's the upside of good planning yep thank you council member yeah I was just going to ask a question about the the grant that you said that you had in mind that that they're on the horizon or maybe already that that awarding this uh contract will

0:58:46actually set forth that motion we would probably suffice and have vetted enough um that that would happen which is another reason to to make this award I suppose definitely to keep moving and identifying these projects so each time each time a new call for proposals for

0:59:02different uh Capital Grant projects come around the further along we are the more ready we are to to access that money I mean I think I have the same concern we probably really all do um from what Mark Friedman said so um I thought the presentation was really good I I got

0:59:17really excited about the PG e open space you know you can see that so visibly from all parts of the freeway in the Bay Area you know a smart landmark and then to see that path winding up through that it's okay we're still gonna have the shoddy display and all that but that was

0:59:31that was really nice the pavement to Parks the the urban Gardens I mean it's it's pretty exciting it's it's a little of the same but it's also a little bit different it's a little more elaborate and it's um you know I just want to make sure that we were going to be able to move

0:59:45forth passing this if we were the money tonight that it'll be good for the grant we've been pretty lucky so far with but due to actually some of our good planning I mean I know when we did get the grant for the Ohlone Greenway they said these seeing our lonely Greenway

1:00:01master plan that we've gone through a political decision making Community involvement was definitely a part of it their concerned to award money most grantors are not knowing if there's been enough process to know that it's a decision that is supported by the community at large yeah I also wanted to

1:00:17comment about the interactive map and being on the city's website anything was um a little more apparent to us having gone through our last series of commission interviews that there were so many people that came forward in this fabulous group of 40 people of the

1:00:32candidates that we had and we often asked them because they were so different from what we've had in our previous interviews and a lot of them said they they when we asked how did you find out about the commission it was from the city website and you know the ads that were up there to you know the

1:00:45plea to come out and and do the interviews that's good that you know it's linked to the city's website it's great so most of my questions have been answered but I want to just sort of ask this one I think you just touched on it I want to make sure that the the Ohlone

1:01:01master plan the Ohlone Greenway master plan that you and I worked on when many years ago is it something that would be dovetailed and and coordinated with this I would say that's the place that we've probably done most planning if there's any um by doing a even a broader Community

1:01:18input we might find and I think going and talking to people on The Greenway is a really good way to Target underrepresented populations and it will be mostly reopening sometime during this process um so yes it will definitely be folded in dovetailed augmented if it needs to

1:01:33be um but I think council members Abel since point was interesting which is how to extend kind of the feeling of the greenway into into other places and I think that some of migs maps showed this kind of concept as well I noticed the schedule is 18 months and I was just

1:01:50curious what some of the Milestones are what are some of the um public events that might be used for some of this Outreach that are incorporated into that so actually the schedule's more about 12 to 14 months which only gives us kind of this upcoming summer as our summer so if you

1:02:08recommend award tonight we have our first task force meeting scheduled next week hopefully or the week after to be able to actually establish the schedule so that we can start to know how we want to work with whether it's Bike To Work Day or fourth of July or Earth days a

1:02:23little soon but um so basically we'd be establishing that pretty quickly so that we can all coordinate and have those available and start to build the schedule um Lieutenant Keith left but let me just put a plug in for the crime prevention committee the crime convention committee

1:02:42is in the process of trying to put together sort of a neighborhood map a map of where the neighborhood watches are and where the National Night Out parties occur and as you know we have 27 National Night Out parties that are self-identified in some fashion for their own Community areas and I believe

1:03:05we've got about 16 or 17 neighborhood watch neighborhoods so those might be a a tool for using to help people self-identify their part of town is potentially through a neighborhood that's an excellent suggestion that hadn't come up yet so we'll put that that's an excellent suggestion with that

1:03:27I will conclude questions to staff and ask if there's any public speakers no request to speak great I will start comments since everybody else already had their comments I'll finish this item and then we'll move on um I want to thank staff for getting this Grant and and it's excellent to

1:03:43have the money to move forward and I too want to emphasize um one of the things that was covered and and I want to re-emphasize it is to get concept drawings and cost estimates so that we do have shovel ready projects um that that is something that's imperative

1:04:01um the master plan for lonely Greenway is is largely being implemented as a result of our getting that in front of Bart and it would be nice to be able to continue that momentum as we go through other parks in our city um the online survey is great but it really is just

1:04:21um the tip of the iceberg and and I really want to re-emphasize as we all have that going out to the people and getting out to the people really is something that when you come back we want to hear how you wore shoe leather out getting to the people um I I think an online survey is is

1:04:41really great from a use of Technology but I don't I don't think that represents all of our community our community is uh you know our census that we took demonstrates that a large part of our community is is not as economically well enough that they're going to be investing in in

1:05:01economic in online connectivity um so those are really the two things that I wanted to certainly um emphasize and uh I look forward to seeing some of the concepts of pocket parks and how we might be able to reuse some of our pavement I'm very familiar with the low impact design and and some

1:05:21of the uh um uh streets that are being now we have just repaved all of our streets so don't go too excited about ripping our streets up but um there are many designs out there about increasing the infiltration of our streets reducing the runoff improving water quality from our streets as

1:05:40non-point Source uh pollution is uh is going to become a bigger and bigger factor and we will be facing not just street sweeping but other types of things that we need to do in order to keep our Waters the bay Waters clean so I just I'm looking forward to seeing

1:05:59what you uh what creative ideas that you're going to draw from other communities and bring to us with that I'm going to look around for short comments only okay very short I can enthusiastically support this plan as long as it includes detailed budget projections for the priority projects

1:06:17and identifies potential sources of funding for those priority projects and that wasn't really mentioned in any detail here so I just want to make sure that's an important element excellent any other comments looking for emotion I have a motion um uh I move that the city council

1:06:36authorized the city manager to execute a Professional Services agreement with Mig Incorporated Mig Incorporated for an amount not to exceed 154 thousand dollars for the preparation of a Citywide Urban Greening plan and or authorized additional change orders in an amount not to exceed 15

1:06:57000 400 and I'm not sure if I can incorp how to incorporate what you just said I they nodded that's good enough okay then I'll just leave it at that a second we have a motion that's been made and seconded all those in favor say aye aye opposed abstentions I let the record

1:07:14show that it passes unanimously thank you very much with that we will move on to item seven b Earth our Proclamation um and this is approve a proclamation uh proclaiming March 23rd 2013 oh I see a 28 30 and 9 30 to be Earth hour the Sanders hello good evening mayor

1:07:50Lyman and members of the council and Mr Hannon my name is Maria Sanders and I'm a Staff with the Environmental Services Division and tonight we are asking you to adopt a proclamation uh can we turn down the lights great thanks since this is Earth hour we should turn down the lights

1:08:13um uh tonight we're asking you to adopt a proclamation declaring Saturday March 23rd between the hours on the hour of 8 30 and 9 30 at night to be Earth hour in El Cerrito and to call upon residents businesses and institutions in El Cerrito to participate in This Global

1:08:33event to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate a commitment to finding Solutions Earth hour is an annual Global event organized by the World Wildlife Fund organizers are predicting that over a billion people this year will be turning

1:08:52off their lights during this hour to express that individual action on a mass scale can help change our planet for the better and to part in in particular to help curb climate change it's important to note that the lights out element of Earth hour is meant to be

1:09:09a symbol of people and communities coming together to take actions to reduce our environmental impact Earth hour also provides a springboard for people to do work and projects year round and these efforts can be found on at www.earthour.org so Earth hour first started in Sydney

1:09:35Australia in 2007 where the lights at its major landmarks including the Sydney Opera House and at the Harbor Bridge were turned off and it's since grown to be a global event where again about a billion people in 152 countries and over 6 500 communities participate and again it's a

1:09:57symbol um and as a symbol here's the Great Wall of China with them during Earth hour so many major landmarks such as the El Cerrito City Hall um participate um so El Cerrito has participated in Earth hour in the past and every year many citizens and groups also um in El

1:10:20Cerrito also participate in Earth hour so this year the city will be turning off non-essential lights during the weekend of Earth hour including our city tower lights and this Proclamation encourages residents and businesses to also participate and to work with the city to

1:10:39help us reach our greenhouse gas emissions goals thank you very much thank you any questions for staff any speakers no speakers I want to note that another purpose of that day is that the world will be celebrating my birthday on March 23rd also happy birthday turn off your lights

1:10:58and we'll blow out candles and I'll let a candle for you any comments I'm ready to make a motion if you're ready proceed Proclamation okay uh and uh I move that we you we have to pass this right we have to take a vote right it's just if you guys could just approve it and I'll sign it I

1:11:24I move that we approve a proclamation uh proclaiming March 23rd uh 2013 between the hours of 8 30 p.m and 9 30 P.M to be Earth hour in the city of El Cerrito and calling up on all residents businesses and institutions to turn off non-essential lighting for this hour to

1:11:44make a global statement of concern about climate change and demonstrate commitment to finding Solutions I enthusiastically second the motion excellent all those in favor say aye aye opposed absentions let the record show that it passed unanimously all right item eight

1:12:08Council assignments against councilmember Bridges council members council member Abelson I have been um busy and I have actually um that I've been away for four days last week in Washington D.C uh where uh as in as chair of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority

1:12:35um which is a byproduct of my being on this Council uh and we met with uh three Congress members our own uh George Miller and uh our previous counts are not Council excuse me Congressman George Miller our previous Congressman uh John Garamendi and also McNerney was the

1:12:57third Congressman that we met with trying to obtain support for um funding Transportation programs and projects in Contra Costa County and I am happy to note that we took along our Transit expert with us um and um in making the police for funding so um the other thing we did was meet with

1:13:24a number of um officials in agencies such as the department of transportation we had met with the head of app to the American public transit Association and the most interesting thing that I think we did when we were there is to meet uh with the head of um its America which is an agency that

1:13:50puts together gathered innovators in the area of Transportation it's a it's like an association and um they're working on various ways to be Innovative and make you know to make change and make improvements to the transportation system in a variety of ways and I found

1:14:10that really exciting and refreshing to be able to have those conversations that last one in particular and as a result of that I was invited to a two-day seminar yesterday and today and I attended on parking that was held at UC Berkeley and um where I learned about a bunch of parking

1:14:33techniques that you can do that um are of Interest which I think I will not share tonight and seeing some appreciation of that but anyway parking lot there'll be a demonstration no no okay but um one of the things that this is um one of the reasons I was particularly

1:14:56excited about this thing is that um we've been working and you may remember it came to the council not too long ago the integrated Corridor Mobility Program we took a position as a council in support of that well that's the kind of project that they're working on

1:15:12supporting and getting Innovation on because it's a new approach to doing traffic congestion relief without building Lanes of on the freeway so it's it's really pretty exciting stuff and I felt really privileged to be able to make that Journey and attend that conference so that's my

1:15:34report great thank you councilman benassini uh just one report through an unfortunate scheduling event I missed the Fab meeting um but I did get the update from Lisa the next day um and that was their first meeting of the year and they the main things they talked about were sort of organization

1:15:51and welcoming new members and their um thought about the rest of the year and how they want to proceed and be useful and one of the things that they discussed was having more interactions with the council and trying to be more useful to the council and part of that

1:16:07was first either coming to meetings or emailing us or kind of keeping up abreast of keeping us abreast of what they're doing not only through me but through their own voices and also trying to work on trying to ask staff and work with staff to get things on a really

1:16:23timely basis so they can provide input um in time for our meetings and in time for our decisions and that included potentially having more meeting more than once a month during particularly in 10 times like during the budget season so they mostly discussed what they

1:16:38wanted to do throughout the year and I think that discussion will continue next month and how they can kind of make sure that their committee that their board is fulfilling their duties by giving us good advice and planning hasn't met yet right thank you um I have uh this is the part of the

1:16:56time of the month that I have five to report on um tree committee met on Monday March 11th uh they had a very vibrant and creative discussion about the uh tree selection criteria uh for how Street trees and park trees would be selected by staff and designers and projects such

1:17:19as the urban Greening project so I would certainly encourage them to be incorporated into some of the work that's going on um that's their next meeting is uh sometime in April April 9th I think it was um the human Relations Committee met on March 6th um they discussed uh

1:17:45see bullying uh and teen suicides we had a presentation from the James Moorhead project initiative and it was from generator Contra Costa Health Services it's about the mental health services that are provided at El Cerrito High School and through the Moorhead Project funding we were able to

1:18:07provide a very extensive Support Network at the high school that is relatively unique within the West Contra Costa Unified School District so our youth are are taking advantage in in being able to be supported through their troubling times as as teens um there is also a discussion of some of

1:18:28the projects that are they are working on including there was a presentation about the rising Waters movie which is March 23rd there is plans a foot for Asian Pacific Islander month they're looking at a couple of movie opportunities and the one the ones they're considering is

1:18:49uh Nanny which we discussed at their last meeting which is on March 29th which is one of our El Cerrito residents Justin tipping helped produce and they um are considering uh Martin Luther King next year will be our 25th anniversary so they're beginning to start the

1:19:10planning for that on Wednesday March 13th the um crime prevention committee met and they principally took up uh discussion of crime activities for the year that is where the discussion of overlaying the neighborhood watch uh groups and their territories with city maps to sort of

1:19:37look for gaps on areas where there aren't neighborhood watches where we can potentially reach out and extend neighborhood watch into those areas and also overlay that with um say block party applications as well as National Night Out parties so that we can reach

1:19:55out to active community members and increase the extent of our neighborhood watch to increase the security and safety of our of our [Music] City and on behalf of the city I did attend the March 14th board of directors meeting for the recycle more which is our West

1:20:22Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority at that meeting we did um two notable things one is we did agree to direct the director Mr Lee Hong to come out to the various cities to give a presentation on the contract that is under negotiation we did have a term

1:20:48sheet that was presented to us and was generally supported at least enough to have it be presented to the various councils so I'm hoping that on April 2nd we will have a presentation uh on the waste management authorities uh post collection contract that term sheet as a voting member we

1:21:12need to make a decision decision about this term sheet so that I can go represent our opinion however the term sheet does not necessarily affect us so it would be it's it's worthwhile for us to discuss it so that you can direct me on how to vote on that term sheet the

1:21:32other thing that we discussed on that night and will be going forward to us probably later in April is the future of the joint Powers agreement for the West County Authority it's a it was formed principally to pay off a debt uh that debt service will end on December 31st of this year and the

1:21:55future of the jpa should be discussed and their soliciting the support from the technical advisory committee with support from the consultant that helped us with our strategic planning at the Waste Authority and Harriet hyville and therefore we're we will be solicited we will be asked

1:22:18what our perspective is uh what our engagement and role will be in the jpa going forward so that that's something that also will come forward probably the second meeting in April last on what day was this uh the first Monday of the month I went and represented uh us at the west

1:22:46or sorry the Contra Costa County mayor's um group and we had a presentation from the Contra Costa volunteers voluntary organization active in disasters this is a non-profit organization all voluntary that helps coordinate volunteer organizations after disasters

1:23:08terrorist disasters natural disasters and some of their member organizations are the American Red Cross California resiliency Alliance California Emergency Management agency Contra Costa office of emergency services Interfaith Council of Contra Costa food bank of Contra Costa Solano Meals on

1:23:31Wheels the Salvation Army volunteer Center of East Bay so this is something that Chief Maples was with me so he was able to to assure me that we have got all of our emergency plans in place and that we are prepared to access funding post earthquake which was the takeaway

1:23:57message that all of the other cities wanted to make sure that the little cities knew that they would not be eligible for federal funding FEMA type funding if they did not have their Emergency Management plans in place and we do so we are well situated to [Music]

1:24:18not only be coordinated with the all these volunteer organizations but also well positioned to pick up federal funding after an earthquake or another natural disaster with that we will adjourn uh this regular regular city council meeting then the next regularly scheduled city

1:24:45council meeting is Tuesday April 2nd at 7 pm we will be adjourning this meeting and convening a meeting of the municipal Services Corporation immediately upon adjournment