City Council Meeting July 16, 2013

0:00:26councilmember venezini here council member Friedman here council member Bridges here and mayor Pro tem Abelson here mayor Lyman is absent thank you um with that we will uh do the pledge of allegiance to the flag or observation of a moment of silence and please join me

0:00:49I 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 are there any counsel or staff Communications then a favor well yeah uh assemblywoman Nancy

0:01:19Skinner had a workshop on the Affordable Care Act that I attended last Thursday and it was uh excellent there was a person there who's uh works for Covered California which is the health exchange that's outreaching in our state and it was very interesting and you know there's a lot of

0:01:43ramifications for everyone in our country obviously but there's you know more specific things that have yet to be determined in terms of implementation and we know already that the president backed off on some of the mandates for businesses and delayed that for a year so it was very

0:02:01interesting meeting well I just um want to start out by mentioning that we had our first gourmet food truck event and I think there were around 1700 people that attended if I have that number right and I would say it was a great success a lot of people did come

0:02:25and um it it will be occurring I guess it's occurring actually right now excuse me uh and from five until nine and every Wednesday thereafter until further notice and um so if you're interested it's located on Fairmont Avenue between the streets of Carlson Boulevard and San Pablo

0:02:51Avenue and um everyone is welcome and um I also would like to make note of the fact that the latest city managers report shows some awards and what I don't want to steal your thunder would I be no okay um we received several uh Awards about which I personally am very excited

0:03:21and I would imagine that you will be thank you um and um the fire department was notified of um through this year they have received three different awards for um a ladder truck we received 806 56 000 dollars we received a hundred and sixty thousand dollars for breathing equipment and we

0:03:53received sixty five thousand dollars for automated chest compression devices that's all equipment that goes to our community to be used to save lives and uh all of this is money that we are not uh required then to provide out of our local funding and can use for other

0:04:18things so I'm just really really excited and I'm particularly grateful to all of the staff who are responsible for putting together the grants that made this happen and all those who worked on them anyway they totaled uh 2.1 million dollars so thank you and we also

0:04:42received a number of awards for from the 2013 parents press Awards through the recreation excuse me Recreation services for best Arts best children's care best fair or festival for the Fourth of July the best General and traditional summer camp best gymnastics classes the community

0:05:09center best independent preschool Casa Cerrito preschool the best nature animals and science summer camp which is crazy crazy funky science camp city of El Cerrito best sports writing and circus Arts summer camp best spring break summer camp best swim classes best Winter Camp it's really quite an

0:05:35extensive list and I'd like to thank Chris Jones who I thought I saw is he here yeah yeah there there he is and all of the recreation department staff that were responsible for this extensive number of awards uh I it's pretty obvious that everyone there is doing a great job so

0:05:56thank you um and with that we will move on on our agenda but before we do I want to mention that we just did interviews we have a couple staff announcements oh I'm sorry um I'll go ahead and make this one we just did interviews and we made several appointments we had three very good

0:06:22candidates and we have a chosen as our library commissioner for the next cycle Janice Wu and as Alternet we have chosen Tom panis and um we're looking forward to some really good work again this year just as we received last year and well that will move on to staff

0:06:48announcements good evening mayor City Council I just have two short announcements one is to build upon mayor city council member abelson's announcement of Off the Grid I just want to give a little bit more feedback on it again there were almost 1800 people and that was

0:07:11um Off the Grid tells us that they expect this week to be equally as big their second week is often as big and then it lessens by just a couple hundred people so mostly that was a soft opening to kind of learn get out some of the Kinks or at least know which ones we needed to

0:07:25and as for those of you that were there the lines were very long and Off the Grid has told us that they're working with their with their food truck businesses to actually ask them to prepare more food and anticipate those crowds earlier so there's not as much of

0:07:37a backup for so those that don't like lines try to get there um early they're also going to be adding some stanchions to help control lines but we also did not see any unanticipated issues we've received numerous positive feedback and just a couple small um issues to resolve in a couple of

0:07:58complaints overall we're continuing to monitor just to make sure that it's going smoothly but it seemed to go very smoothly the first time we're going to be working with local businesses to be able to capitalize on the influx of all of those people who come we're going to be working with Off

0:08:13the Grid and their customers to encourage them to come by all modes of travel so that there's not unnecessary you know congestion created by the event and finally we also are just excited and we've heard from the public that it's been a a really interesting event both in terms

0:08:32of being able to see each other people ran into a lot of people they knew sort of build community and kind of create a sense of place but also to look at alternate ways to use some of our public right away in the same way we do with Street play at conglin and key and along

0:08:43key route so it's been um we feel like a very positive experience and again if anybody does have any concerns and want to give any both positive or negative feedback please contact Margaret Cavanaugh Lynch or myself Melanie Mintz in the Community Development Department

0:08:58or anybody and it'll get to us um another item I just wanted to provide let's see if I um a quick announcement on is the urban Greening plan um thanks to those who participated thus far so it's not going up but it's not critical but we can get it um we have received actually 800

0:09:21responses to our survey um which was the map I was going to show you is just how well distributed maybe you can see that on your own monitors and maybe we'll get it here we go um this is showing about 500 dots not 800 so for everybody Who provided their their nearest intersection we mapped

0:09:37those responses and one of our goals was really to get a perspective from throughout town so you can see how well distributed north to south and east west it is we have other info that we gathered in the surveys that I'll be providing at another time um mostly however what I wanted to

0:09:52announce tonight is that on Tuesday July 23rd from 6 30 to 8 30 we'll be having our first community-wide workshop on both the urban Greening plan and our active Transportation plan which is an update to our circulation plan for bicyclists and pedestrians that was adopted in

0:10:092007.

0:10:11um so again that's 6 30 to 8 30. um I have uh I'll put some flyers in the lobby and we'll be also sending out information over the next couple of days to help to have others help us spread the word to come to that workshop at that workshop for the urban Greening plan

0:10:26will mostly be confirming kind of our opportunities and needs assessment that we've been conducting through the survey and other means as well as for the active Transportation plan really confirming what the priority projects are going forward I'm at that meeting we'll also talk a

0:10:40little bit how both the active transportation and urban Greening plan overlap with the San Pablo Avenue specific plan and complete streets so we think it's going to be a rich meeting and really hope that we get a lot of participation I think those were my announcements for

0:10:55tonight thank you are there any other staff announcements okay thank you then um the next item on the agenda is oral Communications from the public on items that are not on the agenda if you'd like to speak on an item that is on the agenda you can do so at that time unless

0:11:29it's something on the consent calendar in which case um you can [Music] speak now and are there any items yes we have a few speakers for items that aren't on the agenda and the first is Diane Hall hello um thank you Mr Mayor Miss mayor and I um uh my name is Diane Hall I'm a West

0:12:01Contra Costa County school teacher I'm now retired I've been retired for a couple of years I taught in um at Lake School in San Pablo and Mont Alvin school also so um and I when I retired I was determined to devote some of my retirement time to are providing art classes for the kids at

0:12:26Lake I'd sort of I was lucky enough to be able to retire a little earlier because of the housing boom and making a nice little bit of cash so uh but I was always really wanting to equalize what I saw you know the neighborhoods that I saw around Lake School compared to

0:12:45elsewhere this beautiful neighborhood of El Cerrito that I live in I really wanted to try to equalize that somewhat and provide those kids down a lake with um my art project which I brought a binder of of the work I've done um but I wanted to I've been doing it

0:13:02for three years now this will be my third year doing it for no pay just volunteer and it was fine to do it for you know a couple years but after that the saintliness of that kind of wears off and okay um but I had an idea to in terms of raising funds because I'm a real laggard

0:13:20at trying to go out and get an actual Grant um I had an idea of I really love to bake and I had a huge issue when I was teaching a lake because the state the health department um made it legal for us to do after school bake sales anymore so um I was really pretty upset about that I think

0:13:39some of that legislation has changed I'm not sure but I I had I also wondered if it would be possible to sell my own I love to bake I'm a great banana bread and if it would be possible to sell my own baked goods at a farmer's market El Cerrito farmers market and I actually

0:14:00approached the man there it was at least a year or some time ago and I sort of Let It lie who manages the place and he was not very accommodating at all he just said no so I was just coming here to get a little more information about that and see what possibilities there might be

0:14:22for me to sell the bagged Goods which would then go directly into my my uh art supplies and materials for the art classes and I think it'd be fun to sell at the farmer's market but I I don't know that's what I'm asking you about whether that would be this actually isn't a um a

0:14:43question and answer thing it's just you can comment and then perhaps we can have a staff member they could identify themselves follow up with you oh that would be good okay okay so some thank you thank you thank you very much and one other thing I declined to mention uh is that there's a timer

0:15:02system at the front of the room that in front of the DS that says has a red green and yellow light green means you're within your three-minute speaking limit uh yellow means you what got half a minute left one minute left and then red means it's over so um are there any other

0:15:26speakers on items not on the agenda yes Ralph boniello hi Ralph bonello city of El Cerrito I just wanted to thank everybody who helped organize the food truck event on Wednesday and I'm excited to see the ongoing event I was optimistic that such an event would be successful but I was

0:15:48shocked at how many people were there so I'm pleasantly surprised at that one one thing that uh clued me into that something was amiss on Wednesday was when I was riding my bike out of the plaza and then as I was rounding the corner at Chipotle there was a car parked right in the bike lane and it

0:16:08turns out that when that section of sidewalk was replaced it wasn't painted red as it had been painted before and so I'm hoping that's an issue that can get addressed in the future thank you thank you and our next speaker is Tyra Wright good evening Madam mayor Pro Tim members

0:16:35of the council I am here my name is Tyra Wright I'm a resident of the city of El Cerrito and I am here this evening on behalf of the West Contra Costa Association of Realtors in conjunction with the Contra Costa Association of Realtors to invite you the elected

0:16:51officials to a reception to honor your service in the community this is something that's done every year generally in Contra Costa County Walnut Creek area and this is the first for the West County cities to be invited and we would like to extend this invitation to

0:17:09you just to kind of give you an idea of how we can work together and to honor you and the service that you do for our community community and if I may I have invitations for each of you and the city manager that I can give to the city clerk if that's admissible hmm

0:17:27you want to just hand them to the city clerk over here thank you we have no other at this point you can it's not on the agenda okay with that then we will move on to a presentation item number four on the agenda and it's an update on 1800 Elm Street the presentation will be by Chamberlain

0:17:52Associates good evening my name is Steve Chamberlain and I represent Chamberlain Associates the property that is the subject of the agenda this evening is a property that was acquired by my wife and I last year and we asked to be put on the agenda so that we could come and introduce

0:18:16ourselves and share our vision for this remarkable property several years ago Susan and I retired and in our retirement we decided to focus our philanthropy philanthropic efforts in the area of public education for K-12 students we further refined that because I'm not

0:18:39Warren Buffett to two school districts the one we grew up in and where we attended Public School and the district we live in which is this District um in the last several years we have made a whole series of investments in the West Contra Costa district and just a few

0:19:01examples of those are a program called bring me a book that we did in conjunction with the East Bay Community Foundation a program called new leaders that we did in conjunction with several other funders and the West Contra Costa Unified School District and most

0:19:18recently support for the leadership High School which is the top performing High School in the district and doing a remarkable job we spent the last 10 months engaging and analyzing how best to use the the facility at 1800 Elm Street and we have now as a result of that have focused on

0:19:47doing a joint public middle and high school in the facility operated by Summit Public Schools one of the most outstanding Public School operators in the state of California we have a group here this evening that I would like to introduce just very briefly Julie Wright who is the executive

0:20:12director of our foundation Julie is a former teacher and spent a number of years working for one of the most substantial education foundations in the country many City joined us very recently and she is a program manager for our foundation Doug Giffin is a project manager if they could stand

0:20:37up and we would Julie Wright given and Minnie fetty thank you and then last but not least Kelly Garcia who joins us from from Summit public schools and would like to share a few comments about the program and what and their vision for that facility which Kelly is currently the executive

0:21:04director and principal for summit's Everett High School thanks Steve um against my better judgment and my teacher knowledge I'm gonna actually hand you a packet first that I'm going to talk about and ask you to look at it after I'm done talking it's a little hard to do

0:21:31so I just wanted to take a couple moments of your time just to introduce myself to you because I'm really looking forward and hoping to become a strong member of the El Cerrito Community um my name is Kelly Garcia I'm entering my 18th year in public education the most recent 10 years has been with

0:21:49Summit Public Schools a charter organization on the peninsula um for the last two years I've been the school leader the executive director or principal for Everest public high school and really the packet you have in front of you really really sorry it really spells out our model and why we really

0:22:10are excited to come to West County but a couple things I just wanted to really point out about us are number one we really focus on college readiness and as you look at that that packet you'll see that we have a 100 percent college readiness rate across all demographic groups so we really focus

0:22:29strongly on preparing students for college we also really focus on character and so we have six core characteristics that are core to our organization that we relentlessly and consistently Infuse into everything that we do leading to making our students actually really strong members of

0:22:47whatever Community we reside in and we operate for current schools right now and I would invite you at any time to come visit any of them to see what a strong Community member we actually are as an organization and lastly our third kind of strength around College

0:23:04character and then Community really is the last one and we emphasize not only forming a community within our schools but also becoming strong members of whichever Community we actually are fortunate enough to reside in so Mr Chamberlain already mentioned this but

0:23:20we definitely are a nationally recognized organization we are incredibly excited to come to West County and serve the students who live here and I invite you to come see our school and ask any questions that you have I'm completely available to you guys as we go through the chartering

0:23:37process and are really hoping that the West Contra Costa County Unified School Board District approves us next month thank you there are a number of people from the community who have joined this evening um we didn't have an agenda for them but but they may wish to speak

0:24:03um maybe I could just ask that they raise their hands so you can see the people who are interested and wanted to speak maybe they could stand up and [Laughter] [Music] so we're we're here to answer any question you might have Doug Giffin will be leading our process with your city

0:24:28staff in terms of going through whatever we need to go through as part of this process but we wanted to introduce ourselves and give you some idea of where we were headed okay Mark family and all those supporters for your efforts on behalf of young people in our

0:24:49community I really appreciate that and the commitment is very admirable what's the timeline for opening the school um I ideally will start with 127th grade students in the fall of 2014. thank you thank you I I'll I'll um Echo what councilmember Friedman say thank you so much for introducing

0:25:14yourself I think it's so important to come out early there's so much interest in this property it's a big part of our small City it isn't often that a turnover of this many acres occurs in the city so thank you for keeping us informed I I will just note that you

0:25:28probably know this but previously the school wasn't this age group so I'm sure you're thinking about how you'll do work to work with the neighbors help them understand um the types of impacts that may be a little bit different on them from the the older kids that will ideally be

0:25:42coming to the campus sure I haven't um I think sometimes contrary to belief I sometimes we believe that older students are a little bit more scary than having the younger students but interestingly what I have found especially I'm a parent of elementary school students actually

0:26:03um and when I think about the school that I currently run two things really stand out in terms of the impact it might have on a community is that Elementary School students are actually significantly louder throughout the day than my high school students the number

0:26:18of recess and balls and screams and tags and all of those things that happen um sadly happened significantly less at a high school and then and the other piece I think one of the things that we Infuse into our program is mandatory community service and so with high school students

0:26:35and middle school students you actually have an age group where they can actually go out work in your local libraries you know volunteer with different Community agencies go to elementary schools work with the elderly Etc and we actually do that with all of our students because they have a

0:26:50required number of hours and we facilitate that for them that's I think one of the exciting Parts about bringing a little bit of an older group great thank you I just want to thank you again for the presentation I won't Echo what some of the previous speakers have said but

0:27:04um you said you would admit about 127th graders initially was the definition of Middle School 7 through 12.

0:27:12or will it be younger students also no the way the the charter has applied is that we will build every year so we'll start with 100 in the seventh grade and then the next year at 100 for the next seventh grade and then we'll have 107th and eighth grader 200 total

0:27:27we just build up every year so the lowest we would go is seventh grade in terms of age thank you I guess um I'm if um if a family wanted to send their students to the school what would be the process for getting in vaguely um these are all really great questions

0:27:49I'm glad I have a chance to answer them so as a public charter school we are um subject to lots of laws and regulations around enrollment and admittance and so we have what's called a random public drawing and it a lottery basically so there are no preferences for any demographic groups any City

0:28:09groups anything it really truly is a name in the Hat pull them out and it's not even first come first serve we set an initial deadline and everyone who is applied by that if they exceed more than 120 then we actually move into a random public drawing phase okay thank you any more questions okay

0:28:31maybe speak other speakers who want to address the issue so we'll just leave the podium open okay we do have a very very full agenda tonight so if we could be very brief foreign we have two two requests to speak okay um the first is Ben Steinberg I'll just be very very brief uh Ben

0:29:05Steinberg my daughter goes to Mira Vista uh I'm a parent in the community um we want to welcome the charter school into our community with open arms and uh we will be sure to be good neighbors I'll guarantee that my child won't make too much noise but also some of those

0:29:22other children so anything we can do to make it a success I pledge my support in that regard thank you next speaker is I am Dennis Cody I've lived in or I moved to El Cerrito 10 years ago and I have an eight and ten year old also going to Mira Vista and I guess I'm very

0:29:47excited about the idea of a charter school with new ideas also giving different options for students and for me it was very important when I was a student to have different options than I'd like to have the same for the community thanks thank you and that's it okay

0:30:07um is that the end of your presentation okay well okay well thank you very much thank you and with that we will move on to the next item on the agenda adoption of the consent calendar items number five a through 5D I move adoption of the consent calendar items 5825d which includes the minutes

0:30:34establishment of speed limits application for federal funding and committee on Aging appointment second okay all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposition abstentions motion carries unanimously with that we'll move on to item number six on the agenda which is a public

0:30:58hearing on fire hazard abatement and we will be adopting a resolution declaring weeds rubbish litter or other flammable material on certain real property identified in the resolution that that property constitutes a public nuisance is there a staff report thank you

0:31:25good evening council members as many of you know my name is Dave chappar I am the fire prevention officer for the El Cerrito Fire Department and I'm basically here today to provide you an overview at the annual weed abatement program and introduce resolution declaring identified

0:31:40properties in El Cerrito as polka nuisances for the purposes of abatement as a general overview as many of you know every year through the middle of May up until early very early June I do drive by inspections of all properties in El Cerrito from there based on the El

0:32:01Cerrito vegetation management standards um I begin the weed abatement process just as an overview this year initially 140 properties were found in violation as compared with 187 in 2012 and as it comes to you the list is narrowed down to 23 properties to be declared public nuisance as opposed to

0:32:24the 26 from 2012. I'm available for any questions you may have so just to be clear the reduction means that those other properties have already abated the nuisance or you have a plan with them to Abate the nuisance they have already taken together initially my initial inspection is 140

0:32:43Properties by the drive through I did today we're down to 23. great thank you to themselves um I'll move I mean I might ask a question I'm having a little trouble following the process I think it's because I'm having trouble manipulating paper thank you okay um

0:33:15so there is so let me just note that there is a revised exhibit a to both resolutions that have been submitted by battalion chief bond for consideration this evening and um okay so now we go to the public hearing right well I believe staff is requesting that the council first adopt a

0:33:42resolution okay that's okay so is there a motion yeah I'll move the resolution to claim that weeds rubbish litter or other flammable material on certain real property constitutes a public nuisance my second okay all those in favor please say aye aye aye in the opposition of sentient

0:34:07motion carries unanimously Now we move on to part two of this process and um let's see I'm still having a little trouble here we have no speakers we have no no requests to speak so far because it seems like it's a new process do we not open the public hearing we can

0:34:35open it and then do the next this the next step is to open the public hearing and see whether or not there are any objections it's on the back page on the back okay or lavender okay here we go okay so at this time we'll open the public hearing and there are no speakers no requests to speak I

0:34:54move that we close the public hearing second all in favor opposition abstention motion carries unanimously now it's time to take action on uh the second resolution which is attachment six um and um is there a motion sure I moved to adopt a resolution overriding objections by

0:35:20Property Owners as identified on the revised exhibit a to the resolution ordering the city manager or his designee to Abate certain public nuisances by having the weeds rubbish Refuge dirt or other fire hazard or noxious or dangerous materials removed pursuant to El Cerrito Municipal Code

0:35:38Charter 16.26 and government code 39574 now I'll take a breath the city manager or his designee shall keep an account of the cost of abatement for each parcel of land on which work is performed the city manager designee shall then prepare an itemized written report to be presented to the city

0:35:58council so that after the notice in hearing during the city council meeting of September 18 2012. these abatement costs can be confirmed as a special assessment against those parcels second the motion okay any discussion no all in favor please say aye aye aye opposition

0:36:20abstention motion cares unanimously [Applause] with that we will move on to item number seven a which is an agreement with the trust for public land for acquisition of Hillside Natural Area Property which is APN 505-142-012 and 01 3 thank you [Applause] good evening city council members

0:37:20my name is Melanie Mintz and I'm the city's interim community development director and I'm here tonight to recommend that city council enter into a purchase and sale agreement with the trust for public land for the purchase of a 7.6 acre property adjacent to the

0:37:35city's Hillside Natural Area already in public ownership as well as to recommend that the city enter authorize the city manager to enter into a Professional Services agreement with trust for public land to provide real estate transaction and Professional Services related to the

0:37:51acquisition and conveyance of the property to the city and the trust for public land would also provide fundraising assistance through grant writing and through assisting a local private fundraising campaign the property as shown on the screen is located between the city's Hillside

0:38:08Natural Area South and Hillside Natural Area North and as you can see it's the property in red it fits somewhat like a puzzle piece between land already owned by the city and both to the South and then there is a property between our existing Hillside Natural Area Property and this one

0:38:26although there's a connection between the two but there's also property owned by these Municipal utility district and then a property owned by the city which then would provide an opportunity to connect to the hillside Natural Area North acquisition of the property would

0:38:39provide as I said an opportunity for the city to eventually develop a trail connection between the South and North Hillside natural areas this property is also accessible via an existing stairway beneath Madera Elementary School as well as from Potrero Avenue via an existing stairway

0:38:55that connects Madera Circle and Julian drive to Potrero Avenue directly across from the hillside Natural Area North this Gap closure or Trail link would create an uninterrupted approximately mile long park right in the middle of the city the property also has riparian habitat

0:39:12and as I said is adjacent to Madera Elementary School providing opportunities for Environmental Education creating this connection was identified as a project in the city's circulation plan for bicyclists and pedestrians adopted in 2007 as a part of the Park Trail connector project which identified

0:39:29purchasing undeveloped properties bordering the hillside Natural Area in order to enhance Trail connection and as a first implementation strategy the plan did recommend connecting the Southern and Northern sections also the city's General plan includes goals related to open space

0:39:47acquisition including the resources goal which is to protect natural resources important habitat ecological resources key visual resources at stream Banks Etc and Parks and Rec which is to um that high quality open space protected for the benefit of present and future

0:40:05Generations reflecting a variety of important values ecological educational aesthetic economic and recreational the general plan states that these values are interwoven throughout the community in numerous ways so that the preservation of open space is very important to the well-being of the city

0:40:20this item is coming to you at this time due to a Confluence of a number of factors residents and representative from both friends of five creeks and the trail Trekkers to local non-profit non-governmental organizations brought to the city's attention that the property was about to be listed for sale

0:40:36several months ago um knowing that the city itself didn't have a lot of expertise in land conservation or a lot of bandwidth as we call it in terms of Staff time we called the trust for public land a National Conservation organization located in San Francisco or based in San Francisco

0:40:53which is dedicated to working with public agencies such as local municipalities to preserve open space land for conservation and Recreation purposes um Trust for Public land visited the property with us evaluated it and thought that it provided a unique opportunity critical to their mission

0:41:11and a unique opportunity to the city of El Cerrito other factors include the availability if you approve so tonight of City funds to help leverage Grant funds to make this acquisition possible and importantly a strong community group again to lead a fundraising a private

0:41:28fundraising and ongoing stewardship campaign and the two main groups are the trail Trekkers and Friends of five Creeks both who've put numerous hours into into Trail building and Friends of pipe creeks in particular recently has put over a thousand hours into helping

0:41:42with fire prevention efforts up at the hillside Natural Area through removal of invasive plants such as French broom I'm at at the March 5th special city council meeting city council authorized staff to work with the trust for public land to negotiate and see if purchasing

0:41:58this property would be an option if we could secure price as we deliberated as city council deliberated um about whether this would be um what the funding was and whether this would be desirable a trust for public land commence those negotiations and learned that the the landowner the

0:42:14current landowner um required and was was intending to sell the property this year by the close of this uh this calendar year and with that time sensitivity um Trust for Public land in communication with staff work to negotiate a lower sailing price no selling price knowing

0:42:34that there was a the time sensitivity and that the city would not have time to do extensive fundraising at the May 21st city council closed session which was conducted due to the confidential nature of real estate negotiations city council authorized staff to negotiate with stress for

0:42:50public land based on what we had learned so far through communicating with the seller and his broker to develop a process through which the property could be purchased Trust for Public land and what we're here tonight to um to seek approval of has has developed a process in which

0:43:08they would purchase the property and they've entered into contract to be able to have this option they would purchase it and they would hold it until December of 2014 enabling the city to have 17 months to do fundraising for the property which has for public land requires from us in

0:43:23order to do this would be that we guarantee that at the end of the 17th month period that we do purchase for the purchase price of 475 thousand dollars um Additionally the trust for public land would be putting up both the money as well as all the closing costs to

0:43:37purchase the property by the end of August and so in next month as negotiated with the landowner after city council enters and after the um if city council determines the night to move forward the um just for public land would purchase the property it would close in August

0:43:55and we would then with the trust for public land and the private fund fundraising campaign enter into an active fundraising period to be able to raise as many non-city funds as possible for this purchase and as you can see the trust for public land and the staff report in an

0:44:11Associated table has both recognizing the limitation on for cities to be able to purchase a property without outside leveraged funds as well as to demonstrate their confidence is put their whole fee at risk if a minimum amount of matching funds aren't raised so the maximum output of the city if in

0:44:35the end of 17 months we weren't able to raise any additional funds which seems unlikely would be 475 000 with any other additional funds raised either through the private fundraising campaign or the grant uh the the middle of Grants which Trust for Public land will help lead the

0:44:49uh the submission of those grants with City staff assistance and on behalf of the city um any amount of fundraising achieved would lessen um the amount that the city would have to be paying outright for this acquisition um I think you know I I could um I think I should address questions or I could go

0:45:11a little bit more into that Professional Services Arrangement again we've identified uh three at least three grants that we think are competitive for this project they're in urban streams program a recreational Trails program and an environmental enhancement and

0:45:25mitigation program all of those requests for proposals don't come until after January and so we wouldn't know that for several months so it would be um an active fundraising period I think we did go to Parks and Recreation Commission and to the um to seek a recommendation to council that they

0:45:44allow the commitment of measured ww funds up to but hopefully less than the purchase price of 475 000 and we also went to the Environmental Quality committee to seek public input and as you can see there's there's people here tonight so I don't uh who will be providing their thoughts on this

0:46:02um so I think that is essentially my staff report okay are there any Council questions before we move on to public comment I just have two quick questions thank you for the report uh for the grants that you anticipate applying for do all of them have matching fund requirements

0:46:25they all have matching require fund requirements that none of them um I don't believe have a well they're more competitive with matching funds none of them have a minimum they're not um federal funds which normally require 11.49 right um this one isn't by formula

0:46:42these I don't believe are by formula okay so actually one of them there might be a small amount by formula okay and and just to be clear the purchase and sale agreement has the maximum purchase price of 475 000 contingent on an appraisal which supports that finding if

0:46:57the appraisal came in lower than we would have another discussion yes and I forgot after maybe before public comment we also have trust for public land here to um to also speak and we're awaiting the appraisal now but yes if the appraisal um the we would be assuring that the

0:47:13property is coming in at or below market value and just in an r and the funds of the city would put forward in the worst case scenario were nothing to be raised would be 475 000 for the purchase price but TPL would still be responsible for paying for the appraiser and paying for

0:47:27the closing costs all of those costs um a trust for public land is assuming and it's embedded in their Professional Services agreement if in the end and December 2017 but the city wouldn't be putting forward any money until December of 2000 I'm sorry 2014. I think number

0:47:4217 2014.

0:47:45so the thing I have a question so the three grants that were already identified um those were both from our staff and from the recommendations of TPL because I know that they do have some excellent grant writers on their staff yes working in collaboration that we it'll be a dual

0:48:00process that we're working together as a part of the due diligence and even putting forward their proposal the trust for public land did some evaluation of existing and upcoming grants so they actually prepared one-page memo for me to review to make sure that it was and

0:48:13to tell us kind of the strengths of our project and how they met these grants so the Trust for Public Lands philanthropic team is actively monitoring grants and as actively sees it as a project of their own to be able to help the city raise the funds to purchase this

0:48:27property so although already three have been identified potentially there could be more perhaps I mean meeting the time deadline that we're interested in may not work but um what do you see as a potential um accrual from the combination of the grants or singularity

0:48:46work as to what we might a couple points so I think we feel at a very minimum 250 000 is likely um it's it's hard to say right because you never know how many other projects are going to go in at the same time however what I would like to state is that we will be submitting those grants

0:49:04looking for more than the acquisition price we'd be looking also for funding to help do initial Trail studies and development or interpretive signage so some of those like the recreational Trails program would like to see all of them see acquisition as a high priority

0:49:19but they also like to see and could help support some of the trail development so minimum 250 maximum a million okay um it's an answer thank you yeah and and I should point out that those grants will also look very um there's a a lot of selling points for this property it's Unique to be able to

0:49:40have eight Acres at a at a price 7.6 Acres at a price that um at the price that's been secured um also agencies such as those that would be funding would be looking for you know city council support the public support and the the private stewardship groups are and their fundraising are key

0:49:58points agencies know that the more of that that you have the more successful the long-term um Outlook is for maintenance and stewardship of the property as well as Community Support so I think all of those things um some amount and when we look at what amount we would need to put into

0:50:14leverage that's on a case-by-case basis when the grant guidelines come out um but just making sure that the other public agencies funds as well as ours are really maximizing the goals of all four agencies meaning the city as well as the agencies we'd be applying to

0:50:29thank you just a quick follow-up on that same question thank you um so that sounds then like for the Grant application we need to submit some sort of design for signs or or you don't I guess I wanted to ask that question if that seems like another sort of process

0:50:44is how to design Trails or how to design signage or do you just Envision for the Grant application saying we want Trails across the site and we want some signage and not being more descriptive in terms of where they go or what they look like I think a combination

0:50:59um we could develop some very very visual concepts and we have some resources the trail trackers have been actively mapping trails and Trail connections um we wouldn't do very much design I think Trust for Public land does have Trail designers and so we would be able

0:51:14to at least describe in an application well enough describe the projects well enough in the projects we anticipated that they could get a feel for what was possible but that we would not be trusting ourselves wouldn't be doing any real design work we'd be looking for

0:51:28funding to help with with and similarly those programs are apt to look at for example funding preliminary design and environmental analysis work to help ready us for future grants to be able to go for more detailed design and construction so it's typically the way

0:51:44it works you can get grants so the acquisition all of these programs have acquisition is a key priority they know you need to have the land in order to be able to do anything with it and then probably some preliminary design work and environmental analysis would would

0:51:56be something we would also be at least seeking okay thank you and I think you brought up that there is actually a stream on the property and so probably the cut the urban streams that'd be one of the things we go after and again what's interesting about that that we think is both the accessibility

0:52:12of the property through the trail as well as the ability to provide Environmental Education adjacent to a school and it is one of the contributing Headwaters to the Baxter Creek Watershed which is also an important Watershed in the area okay do you have other presenters on

0:52:27this item I thought I heard you refresh for public land I wanted to say quickly introduce themselves as an organization in their involvement and assessment of the project thank you thank you foreign thank you mayor and Madam mayor members of the council and uh it's uh our pleasure to be here

0:52:54and we're really excited to be working with the city of the Madeira property my name is David Sutton I'm the Northern California Director for the trust for public land we're at non-profit land conservation organization headquartered in San Francisco we have offices around the

0:53:09country and we're just over 40 years old we've protected over 3 million Acres from Community Gardens to work in farms and ranches to Wilderness areas in in our national parks the um the uh one of our main focus areas is our parks for people initiative and that involves creating Parks Gardens and

0:53:33natural areas within walking distance for all all Americans in our cities and metropolitan areas um we're uh we're really excited about this I mean you look at how it connects the existing open space in in Hillside natural areas it's pretty remarkable and both from the open space opportunity

0:53:56from the trail connection opportunity in creating access and enhancing access that you've already created in El Cerrito um and uh While most of our projects tend to be larger uh in uh in size um this is one that uh is accomplishes so much um that it's easy for us to be excited

0:54:20about it I think it probably also helps that my colleague Brandon Moriarty and I both live in the East Bay it didn't hurt that a good friend of mine Jeremiah Holland also called me up said hey would you work on this Jeremiah is the teacher at El Cerrito High School and was the

0:54:36coach of course of the Australia mountain bike team for many years and uh is the father of my son's best friend um so um you know we've been doing this and I oh by the way I've 22 years of trust for public land and I've done a lot of conservation projects and most of these opportunities there's a

0:54:57moment in time and when it's there you have to take advantage of it um and this really feels like one of those special opportunities where everything's coming together and you know when that probably not the best analogy but when that Bird's in hand you want to hang on

0:55:13to it and uh we feel that that's this is that moment um before introducing Brennan to speak a bit about uh the negotiations and process with the landowner I do want to just speak briefly to the the grant funds um we understand that there are competing needs and and that that's a

0:55:34sensitive and important issue um it is uh we're very confident in the ability to secure Grant funds for this project um we would wouldn't be proposing to buy and hold the property or to waive the fee that we absolutely need to cover our costs and to work on the project if if

0:55:56we didn't have that level of confidence it's not something we can afford to do um we um we have a very good track record in fact we wrote the legislation passed the legislation for one of the three most promising Grant funds that were targeting um we expect to submit grants of at

0:56:17least 250 000 for each of the three Grant funds that are listed in the uh the agenda and um I think the other thing too uh two two things to mentioned it's a two-step process so if if initially the grants are well received then the grant staff do a site tour so there isn't so

0:56:40much have to be a formal trial plan I mean if you get out there and walk out there you can see how it's going to work and how it's going to fit together um so we uh look forward to that opportunity um I don't say this slightly I really think we have the best grants team in

0:56:56the state they're really really good at what they do and uh and your staff was really good so we look forward to working together to minimize the amount of funds that ultimately the city would have to put into this at the same time it's having that leverage and having the

0:57:12city step out in front is critical to motivate to um competing for those Grant funds and of course we can't move forward with this in the first place unless we know we've got that fallback um with that said I want to introduce our Bay Area program manager Brendan

0:57:29Moriarty who will speak to our work with the landowner and then we're both available for questions of course thanks Dave and thank you Council for having us here tonight um I just wanted to speak briefly on the the timing and the process with the landowner our usual process with

0:57:47negotiating for the acquisition of conservation lands is to secure an um an option agreement typically for a year and a half uh could be more than that to create a window within which to do the fundraising and then complete the fundraising before we would actually

0:58:01close on the acquisition of the property and in this case um as in all cases you don't really get to control the timing of these real estate deals and um in this case the landowner had a genuine need for urgency that was driven by tax planning issues and you know we

0:58:19we've done and continue to do a lot of real estate transactions and gotten quite good of course it's sort of seeing through to the truth and when that's really the case in our negotiations and we believe genuinely this this is the case with the landowner he invested a

0:58:32significant amount of money years ago in trying to develop the property ultimate only that attempt was unsuccessful and so in the process he had incurred a great deal of costs and addition to the cost of acquiring that land many years ago and when he sells the property at

0:58:49the price we've negotiated he will realize a substantial Capital loss that's available to provide an offset to capital gains taxes that he's he has realized as of this March when he sold a substantial real estate Pro substantial development property in Martinez and

0:59:06we've confirmed that that happened so with those uh with the landowners need for urgency we took advantage of um of his need to have this happen to negotiate on price and we thought we got a quite a good price and and like Melanie said earlier we have an appraisal in process now we'll provide

0:59:23that to the city as soon as we have it in another week or two um and um that is about it we're here to answer questions about the process or anything else about the project but thank you very much for having us and we're like they said just uh extraordinarily excited about about the project and and

0:59:39our love working with your staff and also the community it's a great opportunity great opportunity okay thank you and that concludes the presentation thank you are there any Council questions I have no more okay um and are there public speakers we have 10 public speakers

1:00:00okay that's quite a few so if you uh agree with somebody who's already spoken you can when you get up just say I agree with whoever or um I I want this project or I don't want it however you want to express that and we'll take that with as much weight as we would take

1:00:22um the comments if you had already said them since the other person already did so uh with that shall we go ahead and get started Dave Weinstein hi I'm uh Dave Weinstein the president of El Cerrito Trail Trekkers I would like to thank TPL they've done a really good job I want to thank staff I want to

1:00:42thank Council for being Nimble enough to consider a project that comes in at the last minute I know it's kind of stepped on the foot of a planning process but I think back to one time I stood here about 10 12 years ago the Cerrito theater we had a city council that did

1:00:56not think at the beginning at the beginning of the year our goal this year is to buy a movie house and yet they did look what happened and I really think this project has the potential to really open up that whole Hillside tie into all the trails we have in town and really

1:01:10increase the use of those Trails oh and meanwhile while I'm talking I'd like to ask if you don't mind everybody who really is in favor of this Pro this project to like uh stand up even if you don't want to talk during this meeting um the only the other people that I

1:01:22really wanted to think thank is the El Cerrito High School mountain biking team they played as big a role as anybody in getting this going we would not be here in this room if it wasn't for their initiative and to see those kids out there working on the motorcycle Hill

1:01:36Trail that was great that ties directly into this Trail there are two Creeks on the property it's a really beautiful property um well that's all I have to say this is I really urge you to approve this this is a really once in a generation opportunity to tie together this park

1:01:52which should have been United as a part Generations ago it's a beautiful beautiful thing it's going to really change El Cerrito thank you very much Michael mija good evening Madam mayor the council and staff my name is Michael Mejia I'm the president of the bicycle trails Council

1:02:15of the East Bay I represent 2 000 mountain bikers in the uh Contra costs and Alameda counties I'm also one of the founders of the El Cerrito High School mountain biking team um this is a fortuitous opportunity as an advocate for mountain biking and mountain biking access you just don't

1:02:34see this happen very often and so I feel a little foolish saying this is something we ought to do it seems to be a slam dunk decision to me I also want to offer our resources the bicycle trails Council of the East Bay one of the major features we have is in trail building now there are Trail

1:02:51Builders and there are Trail Builders but this is what we do this year we have over 700 Trail working hours in Joaquin Miller Park which is run by the city of Oakland and there's a fair amount of support with our Organization for this we want to wish you good luck with this

1:03:05this is a wonderful opportunity thank you Seth Kaplan and council members from Seth Kaplan I live in El Cerrito and I'm on the parks and rec commission um I'll try to keep this short we did in the Parks and Rec commission have a pretty good discussion of this issue and

1:03:28unlike any uh issue we've ever had we were divided I was one of the people speaking in favor of it and I was hesitant in part because this issue was brought up to us so abruptly we don't really have much time to consider it the other concern that I think most of

1:03:46us have is just the competing needs we have in El Cerrito and everywhere for that matter for limited resources limited funds but given that I still think that this project is worthwhile I think it's a rare opportunity I walked the property last Friday and that pretty

1:04:04much removed any doubt that I had whatsoever of this so I request that you vote in favor passes thank you Gary Hill Hello nice to be here my name is Gary Hill um I live just above the hillside area on [address removed] I am currently presiding on the parks and rec uh commission and was

1:04:35on the design review board for about 10 years uh here in the city I'm the team director for the El Cerrito High School Mountain Bike team and as Dave mentioned we've formed a nice collaboration with the El Cerrito Trail Trekkers to promote the Hillside and the trails that are existing there and

1:04:54hopefully develop a new interlinking trail system this property is a critical link between the Southern and Northern Hillside area it's possible to Loop through the with acquisition of this property as possible to Loop through the hillside uh with potentially about a four and a half mile

1:05:14loop trail if we were to develop it at some point and um besides just preserving open space the density needs of the city are going to increase and so the demand on open space is going to be at a premium and we're in a unique situation uh here in the uh where we live because of the BART

1:05:33system we're in a metropolis you know even though we're Suburban neighborhood and to have something right in our backyard to be able to this resource which is under underutilized currently um is something that we should look at as affecting generations to come and I

1:05:53think this decision that you're going to make today will have that impact and people will look back on this as a as significant uh land purchase in terms of what it means for El Cerrito I'm also chairing the fundraising committee uh private fundraising committee along with uh Dave we've got

1:06:1112 members so far and we're having to turn people away we've got a lot of people who've said they do a lot of work but don't want to be committed uh to meetings and such um privately in a sort of a quiet phase we've been able to raise um thirteen thousand dollars from 27

1:06:28um people there's mountain bikers hikers teenagers retirees adults citizens on the committee and um I think that our efforts are going to be tireless we are dedicated to making this happen it's an important purchase and um so I want to thank you and and ogonowski

1:06:59and El gonowski El Cerrito I'm I'm representing the friends of five Creeks one of the people and we definitely support this I think the reasons were outlined very well in the presentation um by the uh you know the development department and the trust for public land and we've

1:07:18already done put a lot of as you've heard over a thousand work hours into uh the hillside natural areas and we'll continue to to do this work on the area that's in question to be acquired thank you Ralph bonio boniello I Ralph on yellow city of El Cerrito and a board member of friends of five creeks

1:07:42and I just wanted to speak briefly in support of this I had the opportunity to tour the property recently and what I saw there was a beautiful stretch of Creek I saw rare plants I saw native plants I saw Community native communities that could be expanded with proper vegetation management

1:08:00um we saw Wildlife out there I think this is an important Wildlife linkage Corridor between uh the different parts of the uh Hillside Natural Area and um I was really shocked at how good the views were on that piece of property I've hiked a significant amount in the

1:08:19southern section of Hillside Natural Area I've only been over to the north side once mainly because there's no linkage between the two and I hear there's great views over there but it was a foggy day when I was over there so someday I'll get over there but I think

1:08:34you know from my experience this this link this piece of property would provide an important linkage for for recreational opportunities in our own Community I'm also someone who does uh Outreach to Schools elementary schools middle schools and high schools and I I can

1:08:52tell you from experience having an open space like this adjacent to the school where the kids don't need some some form of transportation to get there is a really important thing it opens up a lot of opportunities opportunities to them it allows them to take field trips

1:09:07without having to dedicate a half day or a whole day to getting out and seeing nature and as an organization I Envision we can provide lots of Outreach opportunities on conservation and ecology to those students so I'm really excited about this opportunity I'm thankful that we

1:09:24have trust for public land working with us because it allows all of us as Community groups to focus on our missions and not focus on you know real estate so it allows us to progress our missions whether they be Creek Conservation or mountain biking or hiking and I hope this uh this gets

1:09:41accomplished thank you Tom pianos good evening mayor Pro tem Abelson city council and members of City staff my name is Tom pannus I live at [address removed] in El Cerrito those of you who have long memories both on the council on the staff who remember that shortly after measure ww passed in

1:10:14November 2008 I was immediately before the parks and rec commission and then the council with slides and lists of parcels that I thought the council should consider purchasing with measure WWE Money I've turned the following year and I believe one year after that with pretty

1:10:28much the same thought what better use could there be for our measured ww dollars than for land acquisition it'd be a great understatement to say that I've been pleased to follow these recent developments I'd like to thank the friends of five Creek and the ultra

1:10:40Trail trackers for bringing this opportunity attention to the staff and I'd like to thank the staff about trust public land for following up so promptly and effectively on this for you tonight's the question of whether uh the proposed purchase of partials 505 142 12 13 and 14 for up to 475 thousand

1:10:58dollars is a good use for our measure ww money my opinion has changed I think would be a great use absentee grants for that money thanks so much for your time howdy goody hi so I'm howdy Gowdy um I'm on the Environmental Quality committee and uh live at [address removed] and I too share the

1:11:31enthusiasm of everyone who's spoken for this property it is a spectacular opportunity and I think I fully support the idea of this being a public open space and and the trails connectivity and and natural preservation that it um it offers us um but at the same time I feel obligated

1:11:53to provide a little constructive criticism or just a critique of what it looks like or feels like from my perspective I may not be very well informed but I think clearly it's it's partly the nature of these real estate transactions that they're a little bit um more of a closed process but it just

1:12:15to me did not feel like it held up to the standards that you know the city has for open transparent process that has you know good um is well founded in in sort of strategic prioritization um I'm not challenging the fact that it's been identified this is a valuable

1:12:33thing to do just that there are so many competing interests that we need to consider and the speed with which something like this goes from you know a a possibility to an action is um a little bit you know hard to reconcile with other actions that that the city

1:12:53takes so um I just want to reflect on that I I encourage us to reflect on that I I still support the action I think it's it's useful but uh clearly the city needs to do more of this and think about how it does it and and can do it in the most you know Equitable and

1:13:12um and representative way so um that's that's basically my comment I mean I think it's a situation where um the price actually does sound amazing for a parcel of that size but on the other hand I I it's unclear to me whether you know further considerations could have been made to

1:13:39actually you know achieve a similar situation that that was maybe even less expensive um just by the virtue of so much of it not really being developable because of the creeks and hillsides you know maybe an easement on you know 95 percent of the property could have been purchased

1:13:59for for less money and enabled other things to happen I am heartened by the idea that um there's going to be all this grant um you know seeking and and private fundraising that's excellent and that will help you know save some of that measure WWE money for other purposes but

1:14:20um those are still resources that are being expended and and not able to to help support other things so I just want to help bring to attention the prioritization issues and um you know the idea that uh we even a great opportunity like this the the process matters you know the

1:14:43ends don't justify the means we really need to be careful about how it's structured and how we go about it so thank you very much Betty buginas hi I'm a long time resident of El Cerrito and also soon to be teacher at Madera and I'm very excited about this as a fairly close neighbor as well as

1:15:11the the thing about the possibilities that it will provide to the school has has been handed at um the hillside nature area is just one of the greatest assets that the city has it is underutilized and it feels like this uh particular piece of property um could really be a catalyst for us

1:15:31taking advantage of what we have here as it has been mentioned it's a connector to the two big pieces we have Community groups like The Trekkers and the friends of five Creeks ready to help make sure we utilize this well and get the word out about it um and I'm especially of course

1:15:49concerned about the school and the possibility to take classes out there for science lessons I do that kind of thing now at Tilden and also to take the kids out for service projects where they can help do projects out there and get involved in that way and of course

1:16:07there's a big movement in recent years to get kids to go back to walking to and from school so this is another way they can utilize it and it's it's not just the students that are there now the families get involved too and become aware of what's there and help and of course we get new

1:16:26students and families every year so there's this will be an asset for many years to come thank you Phil Martine hi good evening mayor Pro tem Abelson and members of the council this is a great project and I just want to really commend the council and staff Melanie

1:16:52Mintz and um and also the Trust for Public Lands for for putting this great proposal and project together um I I think I I a lot of people have spoken before me about many of the benefits of this project I just want to briefly say that I've been a high school mountain bike

1:17:11coach for the past or or parent or or bride volunteer for the past eight years and during that time I've I've witnessed firsthand the benefits to Young members of our community engaging in that Sport and and there are many benefits physical uh uh certainly but also just that just

1:17:31getting kids out into the community is a big part of what mountain biking is about and and having them out and enjoying um our trails and our Parks is is really a great thing about mountain biking and I think this project has the potential not only to benefit our hikers

1:17:50and our Young Elementary Schools students transporting themselves to school but also to engage our our high school kids in in really embracing our our Park system so I I really encourage you um to to approve this project and um I guess the the last thing I wanted to say

1:18:13is that a lot of the kids who are involved in mountain biking have also been doing a lot of trails work and so I think you know there's there's potential to engage young people in doing Trails work as well as enjoying the trail system so thank you very much Susanna Marshland

1:18:39thank you for having us and I also am representing the El Cerrito High School mountain biking team on the I've been the Secretary of that team for a number of years and we go to great efforts to make sure that any Rider who wants to ride has access to a bike and great coaching you've

1:18:58heard from a couple of our coaches already but one of the things that we have lacked is access to really good trails right here in our backyard that we don't have to drive to and so I am very much in support of this proposal because it's so excuse me so important

1:19:15for kids to be able to access the outdoors to enjoy and also have the opportunity to give back to their Community quite a number of these kids have been involved in trail building as Phil mentioned and we'd love to see that continue um Zen Marshland I apologize if I watched

1:19:37your name no problem uh my name is Alexander or Zan for short I am one of the uh former writers in the El Cerrito High School mountain bike Team I joined as a freshman I'd done some mountain biking before but uh due to uh the really really good coaching and being able to ride good Trails

1:19:59um I am now somebody who identifies as a mountain biker and I can promise you that in 40 years I will still be riding bikes um so uh I mountain biking really really improved my life uh and uh made me a lot healthier thinking about my own health a lot more active and helped me get

1:20:24outdoors more and I've seen it happen for a ton of other kids at El Cerrito High and a ton of other kids in the league I got good at mountain biking because our team every Sunday would usually drive to Marin to China Camp Park or tamarancho because that's where the good

1:20:43legal single track trails are trails that are usually two to three feet wide and uh usually help teach New Riders how to ride their bikes uh with better control um and mountain biking really should be a green sport uh and a sport where we both get out in the environment and care

1:21:06about it and I think the best way to do that is to ride locally be able to ride our local stash of single track and share it with others who come by and so uh for the benefit of everybody who's a mountain biker here in El Cerrito it would uh it would be good and for the

1:21:27benefit of uh anybody who could become a mountain biker and could become healthier and uh could be outdoors more it would be a good idea thank you Robin Mitchell my name is Robin Mitchell I'm an El Cerrito resident I'm also in the Park and Recreation Commission and I was one

1:21:57of the two Commissioners that voted against recommending this project um and one of the reasons that I did was that partly as Seth said we were sort of caught off guard we didn't know very much about what um we didn't know anything about the project and just had

1:22:15one meeting to think about it and make a recommendation and it was too much information without enough time to consider it um and my main concern was just that uh so potentially so much of measured WWE money could be spent on this project there's only like um 587 000 left in measure ww the worst

1:22:37case scenario would be that we would spend 475 of that so there wouldn't be that much left for other projects and I am very hopeful that trust Republic plans can do their great fundraising that they um are known for doing and make it so that not that much money of measured WWE

1:22:58is spent but there is no guarantee and the city does is responsible for spending 475 000 of measured WWE if none of the other fundraising comes to be and I guess the main reason that I worry about not having measure WWE money I mean Melanie is convinced that we can

1:23:17get all kinds of other fundraising and we are very and other grants and stuff for other projects we are very the city is very good at doing that but I just think that there are a lot of under represented people in this town that need good um Urban Green Space and will never make

1:23:33it up to the hillside Natural Area and there aren't any parks that they can walk to and they will never come to a meeting like this and um in a public forum say what their needs are you'll never know what they are and so I think you need to really think hard about how you serve all the citizens

1:23:54in terms of urban Greening and not just um some of the citizens and you know I I I'm astounded that I hear myself not supporting open space because I think it's a really important thing but there are a lot of other priorities other things that have equal priority I think

1:24:13in terms of parks that we need to park space that we need to provide for people especially in the flats and in some of the areas where there's apartments and stuff like that so um I just because everyone else has spoke basically spoke for it I felt that I had to um say how I felt about it and

1:24:34um so uh I guess that's all I have to say so Brian Seegers foreign and I also have been a writer on the mountain making team for the last four years and I just wanted to speak briefly as to some of the merits of the program um so I've lived in El Cerrito for a long time now I live in Kensington but I

1:25:08went through Harding Portola El Cerrito participated in many City programs and I have to say that the amount of biking team has been by far the best program that I've ever participated in so clearly there are strong benefits athletically and in developing the health of our youth but I think some of

1:25:26the things that go less mentioned are the development of a team mentality so mountain biking is really really good at developing a team mentality because you're all there riding together but it's different from other team sports because there's also an individual

1:25:41component where you can push yourself to your absolute hardest but you're also there with your team you support each other at the races and I think that's important to many youth um it does very very directly encourage youth engagement I'll give myself as an example so biking with this team really

1:26:01encouraged me um to pursue the development of outdoor spaces um so I worked with friends of five creeks in Berkeley and I did an Eagle Scout project we did about 200 hours of volunteer work developing a hiking trail on Albany Hill so I give that as an example of my own engagement that was

1:26:19taken out of this mountain biking program and um I think uh the speaker before me made it sound us it sounded as if the park wouldn't serve everyone but I think the mountain biking team at El Cerrito High School in particular is excellent at engaging everyone because they have

1:26:38programs for people who can't afford bicycles they have Team bikes for people who can't afford to participate in Races they have scholarships for that so they really do make sure that this is a program to engage everyone in the community who is willing to step forward

1:26:52and I think that's incredibly important and this space is really really critical to developing that program thanks the last speaker slip I have is Judy Forest okay good evening Madam mayor council and staff I'd like to say that I agree with the people who have supported this

1:27:13proposal and I'd also like to address a couple of the objections that were made to the proposal in addition one objection was made that the proposal came up very recently without much time to consider it I think that one of the benefits of a community such as El

1:27:29Cerrito small small Council face-to-face meetings is that we can react with nimbleness to something like this when it comes up at the last minute and see a fantastic opportunity and make a decision I also think that this is a fairly low risk proposition because I believe that we do have very

1:27:49strong chance of getting most of the project paid for through grants I would also like to respectfully say to the person who talked about other underserved communities who may also need open spaces and may not be able to benefit so easily from this one that not

1:28:06all Open Spaces are equal this particular open space appears to be a beautiful location I'm familiar with that view because my daughter went to Madera I was a renter for many years in El Cerrito we live in Albany now but we own income property in El Cerrito so I

1:28:23think acquiring this kind of open space enhances the value of property all over El Cerrito and I would like to also suggest to the people who support this project that part of the grant money actually be spent on Outreach to some of those underserved members of the

1:28:40community who might not know that the property is acquired or is there and that this be something that we make sure is owned by the whole community and not just those people who might find it very easy to get to and that that we can make that as one of our goals as well thank

1:28:55you thank you thank you I believe that completes our public speakers yes so we'll now turn it back to the council for comments I have just a couple of follow-up questions maybe that were brought up by a couple of the folks thank you so much for staying and giving

1:29:12your testimony and I appreciate the parks and rec Commissioners coming we don't always hear exactly what happens at meetings because our liaison report is usually at the end of the meeting so I appreciate you coming tonight to talk about what your commission did and what

1:29:24your deliberations were like just a question for Melanie or maybe for TPL and that is was an easement an option or was that not desired by the owner due to the tax advantage they were looking for all right sorry uh the owner of the property is a gentleman in his 80s and he's been a

1:29:47developer for the majority of his career of his career and at this point in time is getting out of the development business and his son is taking over and he recognized that he didn't he wasn't going to have the time to take another attempt at developing the property and

1:30:01wanted to just resolve it and get rid of the property in full and um I should mention that in regards to the timing the reason that we're confronted with the need to purchase the property in in August rather than at the end of the year is because in the event that the

1:30:17trust Republic land didn't perform on the contract for purchasing the property the landowner needed time to react and find another buyer for the property in order to take advantage of those tax planning issues that I mentioned earlier add something specifically with

1:30:34easements on in addition to what Brendan just shared our best assessment of this um and I'm Brendan you can respond to whether you offered that but often easements are more successful when somebody is wanting to keep a portion of their land for some purpose so a farmer

1:30:50for example might be very very apt to do that or somebody who has a connection to this property and again as Brendan noted this person this the owner of the land was in it for real estate development and the financial benefits of selling at fee simple would be greater so Brenda

1:31:07you can talk about whether you specifically talked about it but it doesn't um it's often an excellent way and I've used it in other places but it didn't it didn't seem to come up in the in these conversations with each fact that we learned so okay and the only other question I had

1:31:21is with regard to some of the item that the parks and rec Commissioners brought up I know that we've had these measure www funds and I was the liaison to the commission more than a year ago now there were some projects discussed but we there really wasn't a prioritization

1:31:37um discussed for measure WWE funds and I'm wondering if there were specific projects on the list and I think I don't know if I think Jerry Bradshaw at that time when I was the liaison was providing um sort of uh Staffing assistance to the commission on this particular item where

1:31:53are their particular projects that are in the near future that we're giving up or are the other potential projects really items that are near long-term type of things that we might not be able to act on immediately that maybe we can act on after the urban Greening plan or after

1:32:13there's additional monies I guess I just want to hear a little bit more about what what the trade-offs are again uh the recreation director Chris Jones can chime in if I miss some of this so originally measure ww had uh almost 1.1 million so a million 65 thousand

1:32:29available um the funds that have been spent so far have been on a Creekside lighting project it was 104 000 Cerrito Vista playground was 186 000 and Gilman field we made a contribution of almost 14 000.

1:32:44there's also currently 174 thousand dollars dedicated to Huber Park improvements long-awaited Huber Park improvements which you may have heard about and so that leaves what one of the speakers referred to or one of the parks and rec Commissioners referred referred

1:33:00to as a 587 thousand dollars remaining um so this does not um so that's one part there's also been a there was a survey conducted early on that staff in the commission and others have realized was a snapshot but that it wasn't it didn't necessarily have enough information to make all the decisions

1:33:19it's kind of small here but open space acquisition at that time was the top um ranking project followed by Cerrito Vista Park uh ball field Creekside Park lighting Cerrito Vista playground um and Central Park playground Rehabilitation so it goes down to the top ones we're easy and I think that the

1:33:40Parks and Recreation Commission and our Public Works director and others and Recreation director realized the rest started to get harder and at the same time we did seek funding for the urban Greening plan and realized that the Outreach and input that came through

1:33:53that could help the process it wasn't it wouldn't determine and it wouldn't be making decisions on every dollar spent but it could help get a broader sense including um of what type of land acquisition needs there were at the time you might recall that one open space acquisition

1:34:08came up council did direct staff to continue to kind of evaluate and look at the viability of it could we do it was there outside funds so speaking again to some of the concerns that the um well that Robin from The Parks and Recreation Commission and others are definitely

1:34:22things that we're looking at the urban Greening plan that uh proximity and equitability and all of the issues of different types of open space pocket Parks Urban plazas we'd like to continue to look at look at all of those other needs as well um so does that yes help thank you

1:34:41okay um do you have any I I have comments but no questions okay go ahead okay I'm very enthused about this project and really thank the community members who made this happen this is a uh upsurge upswelling and you could say is at the last minute but we've known about the need for more open

1:35:03space for many years and sometimes opportunities come and if we're not ready to take advantage of them as several of the speakers pointed out will lose that opportunity I think there are certainly a lot of other Parks and Recreation needs and things we could use

1:35:19ww money for but not all of those opportunities have the same ability to be leveraged as much as this project does has been pointed out uh very comprehensively by the trust for public land and some of the other speakers and the fundraising that's taking place so I

1:35:36think it's a wonderful project and will be a real asset to our community and I really thank our partners with the trust Republic land for negotiating which seems like a very fair price for such a magnificent addition to our public lands I think I want to just make a couple

1:35:56comments as well um and I I had I think a very similar reaction to some or or similar skepticism when the project was first brought to us in wanting to make sure that we are serving our whole community and this is kind of jumping to the front of the list because the seller

1:36:10and the opportunity has come up and is that the right right way to do things and when I started on the council I lived in those apartments just a couple blocks away and really walked to the park um and was very reliant on having an open space near my apartment and loved

1:36:25open space because obviously when you live in an apartment you don't want to stay indoors for much of the day so I too was extremely cognizant and skeptical about whether or not it would be the right decision to purchase this property giving all of the competing

1:36:38needs the reason I am supportive at this point and I'm happy to support this motion are a lot of the things that have to do with purchasing sale agreement I think the incentives that are set up are excellent like Steven said TPL cannot function by I working for free and

1:36:55paying for appraisals and paying for closing costs so I think it's a great show on their part of putting all those up in to as a show of confidence of how good they believe they are getting grants so that's a great incentive on their part we have another incentive for

1:37:11um the the private groups who have shown a lot of enthusiasm and fortitude in terms of coming forward to do some soft fundraising um I also like the appraisal protection that we are agreeing to a sale price at this point but not until the appraisal is supportive of that sale price and I

1:37:27was gratified to learn I hadn't remembered what we had spent measure double w funds on so far but we've spent it on Creekside Park and Cerritos Vista Parks parks that are accessible to folks in the flats and on Gilman fields which is not obviously not walking distance

1:37:41from El Cerrito but it's still something that is widely used by the city right by City residents um so so for all these Reasons I'm really enthusiastic about this project but I am extremely interested in uh when we get to the point of urban Greening of of really taking a deliberative look at

1:37:58how we are serving our residents and how we're engaging our residents because I completely hear what commissioner Mitchell said which is there is a large segment of our population that we won't see in these Chambers and we can only hope to get their opinions and other

1:38:10methods hopefully by the methods that Melanie and um our consultant are undertaking to try to get more input from a broader range of folks in our city but for this property I think I am I'm enthused and and this map is just an incredible map for what it'll do for our

1:38:27City's connectivity and for all of the great open space that we if we don't take this opportunity now the alternative is to let the seller sell it to somebody else potentially have another battle over development or we can take this opportunity now and lock it down for forever so I'm enthused to

1:38:44support this resolution comment um that's already been said by my Council colleagues but I also want to make it very clear that if we did not use WWE funds this project would not be taking place we couldn't use this we couldn't use money from the general fund if

1:39:05anybody sat through our budget was over the last three meetings prior to this you'd understand that this literally wouldn't be possible unless it was done this way um the stars are now aligned we did an incredible amount of due diligence I think the fact that we decreased the

1:39:22price the sale price as much as we did that the the seller has some tax needs that make this movement necessary now having been a park and rec commissioner for eight years I get it um you know we have field users we have hikers we have gardeners I was a tennis player I raised 125 000 to build the

1:39:52third cart court on the Arlington because our teams couldn't play there anymore I will challenge the trail trackers to do better than the tennis players did we had two casinos nights and we had 50 50 clubs and um you know we raised a lot of money and we had money left over and we gave it back to

1:40:10the city for for some tennis programs so there's always competing needs we have to make those tough decisions but the bottom line is this wouldn't be possible to be done and completed without the use of WWE funds and you know hopefully we'll be as successful as we always have

1:40:28been in our grant Rising grant writing and our grant acceptances and passages that we're going to get some money and not use as much WWE funds as we're now anticipating and I think it's it's true if we let this opportunity pass there could be development there with houses

1:40:49and I don't think any of us really want to see that so I too am really in support of this and um I suppose it uh for people who may not understand or people at home that when we're negotiating real estate it is in closed session we can't bring that information forward to park and rec

1:41:12commission or anyone else and the process was probably a little clumsy um on on our part but just understand why it was done the way it was done so thank you um and I guess I'll close out the comments by saying I'm also pretty excited about this project and I actually look back further perhaps than

1:41:39anyone else in my comments at least in looking at our general plan and that our general Plan called for open space and if you look at uh element after element of our general plan you see references I think along the way in a lot of the areas that refer to that sort

1:41:57of thing and I think that this is fulfilling the positive vision of that General plan which at this point is quite old but and it's an important Vision I think for the future of our city we're an urban city and we're a dense study where the second densest City I believe if I have if I

1:42:17remember correctly in the county and uh just behind San Pablo is is the city that's more dense than El Cerrito and um so what what open space we have is very precious and so to to have this unique opportunity to gain this open Open Space is really quite special

1:42:41and um I think we are um just plain lucky to have the staff that we have and to have found the associates that we have to help us find the money so that in fact what we can do is use this money twice once by by in essence using it temporarily from ww and then getting it into other sources and then

1:43:08bringing if all goes well bringing the WW money back into the open to be used again for other um needs so I think we're in a really um good position and I I look forward to our immediate vote on this off object so with that if there's nothing else to be said um is there a motion I'm happy to move a

1:43:37resolution of the city council of the city of El Cerrito authorizing the city manager or his designee to enter into a purchase and sale and Professional Services agreement with the trust for public land to acquire APN 505-142-014 and the same APN number except it ends in 012 and 013 adjacent

1:43:59to the city-owned hillside Natural Area all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposition abstentions motion cares unanimously and thank you to all of the numerous audience members who came in expressed your opinions tonight thank you with that we'll move on to item 7B on

1:44:23the agenda which is the results of the survey by God B research on the development of the future city facilities we'll take just a second to um for people who don't want to stay thank you this doesn't mean you don't have an interesting survey that everyone's leaving

1:44:51[Laughter] yeah I'll start ready great thank you mayor Pro tem Abelson I'm Karen Pinkus I'm the assistant city manager and tonight we're here to present to you the results of a survey that was conducted by copy research regarding development of future studies future city facilities

1:45:45one of the goals of the city's strategic plan identifies develop and rehabilitate public facilities as Community focal points the strategies that we've outlined for this goal can are include continuing to assess facilities to prioritize and strategize investment for

1:46:01example Library public safety building Senior Center Community Center in this year's adopted budget no funds are identified in our Capital Improvement program for investment in either rehabilitating or building new Library Public Safety or Community Center facilities

1:46:18a number of factors contributed to this including the economy the loss of our Redevelopment agency and lack of available grant funding because no new revenue streams have been identified nor projected actually the city staff has concluded that it appears our best method for obtaining new

1:46:35revenue for such for funding such public facilities would be generated by a measure approved by the voters of El Cerrito to that end in May of this year Godby research performed a statistically valid survey related to potential Revenue measures and I'd like to introduce

1:46:52um in in a moment Brian Godby who conducted the survey he is the president and founder of Godby research following Steph has felt that it is important to continue to survey our residents to determine priorities for such unfunded projects and whether or not there may be a willingness to go

1:47:11forward on a future ballot measure Brian is going to present the results to you and following Brian's presentation staff can discuss and answer questions and receive feedback from the council as to next steps for going forward for such a measure or any next steps for future

1:47:29consideration so with that I'd like to again introduce Brian Godby of God be research thank you thank you Karen members of the council pleased to be here this evening to talk with you about the results of this recent survey I want to jump in here as you know the

1:47:47purpose of this survey was to and as Karen described was to look at voter priorities and support for either a public safety a library a community center or a senior center Bond measure and we have a real specific methodology which I'll speak about in a moment to do

1:48:06that and then it makes the survey a little more complicated than we might have done in some of the earlier surveys we've presented to you we want to also of course look at the tax rates to see what might be affordable to look at projects and programs basically the sub

1:48:23components of these major facilities to see what the priorities are to look at both supporting and opposing arguments and it's important to do both sides of the coin because we're trying to look at the real world not just the one we'd like to live in and then we also in this survey tested

1:48:42an alternative approach given our experience with measure a and doing a special sales tax for roads that's certainly possible for other facilities as well so we look at that as an alternative to a more traditional General obligation Bond approach which would be the the typical way to fund

1:49:01these kinds of projects uh and then of course in the detailed report which we won't go into tonight there are certainly demographic and behavioral characteristics and crosstabs and pages on pages of data to sit through if you like so the methodology um is similar to what we've done in the

1:49:22past is a telephone survey our universe was likely presidential voters meaning the broadest likely voter universe that we could look at and that would be November 2016 even though November 14 is also a general election it is only a gubernatorial one so the turnout is not

1:49:40as high but it is that is a subset of the November 2016 presidential election so it is part of this analysis as well and then we also looked at the primaries which are actually similar elections similar percentage turnout in both 2014 and 2016.

1:50:02we were in the field from May 29th through June 10th the survey was just short of 19 minutes long the sample size for each of those three groups that I mentioned was 504 for the November 2016 election 399 for the November 2014 and then 308 for the primary elections and

1:50:25you can see that they're concentric circles going to higher turnout elections in terms of the margin of error for the largest it was 4.3 then 4.8 then 5.5 so the air rate is roughly similar when we're looking at all of the data for each of the various elections the other

1:50:46component of this because we're looking at three basic facility types Public Safety is one library is a second and the senior center community center community facilities being a third you can't test well what do you think about Public Safety what do you think about a

1:51:04senior center what do you think about a library in succession because each one will be reduced by 10 percent even though you may say well what if this were the only one on the ballot they never in a survey hear it that way they always think wow you got three measures are coming at me at me with and

1:51:25so the support declines so the way to solve that problem is to do what's called a split sample and what that means is that you take the interviews you have and a third of them in this case are asked the public safety ballot measure a third of them are asked the

1:51:41library and a third of them are asked the community Senior Center facility measure that increases the error rate slightly but not dramatically um and it gives us the ability to compare them in a fair head-to-head what's the best case for each one of those and then you can see what's the

1:52:01preference among the voters or their priorities so that that also makes for a fairly complicated survey uh in terms of its link and some of these slides that will follow because of that I will try to be brief but if I'm going too fast certainly uh stop and and ask a question

1:52:21in that split sampling approach the first question that we asked is in the Box on the right hand side of this slide and it's the wording for the public safety Bond measure now again this is a general obligation Bond measure and what that means is that you're pledging the

1:52:40full faith and credit of the city to repay the bonds but there is no tax rate in the ballot question so it is different than a parcel tax uh partial tax is more familiar in many cases in schools School District cases certainly and what the difference is you actually see the tax amount so uh is it

1:53:04a hundred dollars per parcel or is it seven and a half cents per square foot as it is with the school district but if you think back to the School District bond measure which was also on the ballot last year there was both the parcel tax which was cents per square

1:53:19foot and then there was this x hundred million dollar Bond measure but the bond measure never talks about a tax rate in the ballot question that's really important because that we're trying to mirror what happens on the ballot this is similar to that school bond measure

1:53:37in that it doesn't have a tax rate in it it has the gross amount of the bonds um and that's the difference between a bond measure and a parcel tax essentially they're both property taxes though it's just a different approach so what we've done here is we've tried

1:53:55to guess what we think that from previous surveys we've done what the best features of a public safety building would be and put those in the bullets in this particular question we're also constrained by the fact that this has to be 75 words when it gets to the ballot so we don't want to undersell

1:54:12it by using fewer than that and we don't oversell it because we don't live in that world and so this is at that 75 word limit as you can see here the support for the measure in November 14 is at 56 percent in round numbers in November 16 is 57 percent virtually identical statistically that

1:54:36includes both the definitely yes and the probably yes we can do that methodologically because the way we ask this question is we say would you vote Yes or no get an answer and then ask them is that definitely or probably on either side of the equation so you can correctly

1:54:54aggregate the numbers or you can disaggregate them to see how strong or how soft the support is because this requires two-thirds it's not so much a question about strength of support we're just not there even with air rate on the upside which we would rarely counsel to do we're not

1:55:16there the next measure same set of caveats is a general obligation Bond measure and you can see in the Box on the right hand side the actual wording for this particular measure for the library in this case aggregating the definitely and probable yes for the November 14

1:55:37election we have 64 percent and for the November 16 we have 69 percent in round numbers so that's not a bad place to be when all they know is the wording that we've seen in this box we haven't told them anything else about the library measure and that exceeds the two-thirds

1:55:55threshold required to pass a bond today but it doesn't exceed it by the attack or by the error rate that we talked about earlier can I just clarify one thing so in the 75 words you wouldn't say what the tax rate would be but isn't it the next section on the ballot that voters get

1:56:14that talks about how much this would mean well yes and no it's not on the actual ballot where they are more arguments it's not in the arguments it's in the voter handbook okay um and it's called the tax rate statement okay um but most people would be hard-pressed

1:56:31to find it okay and it's in very technical language so it's not accessible um as the ballot question is so when whether they vote absentee or whether they vote um in a uh in a voting booth the the thing that the last thing that they see would be the 75 or okay thank

1:56:51you um now I did say that this is It's two-thirds today there is talk in the legislature about a what's become an Omnibus measure to reduce the threshold for a lot of things everything from school parcel taxes to Transportation sales taxes at the county-wide level to

1:57:11a 55 majority that still talk there's been legislation introduced it hasn't passed out committee yet it will have to go to the voters in November of 14 and be approved Statewide before it becomes it changes the threshold so we're counseling all of our clients to keep your fingers crossed

1:57:34and hope for that depending on your timing but don't plan on it because there's lots of parts of the state that are unlikely to support that kind of measure but this is a good place to start for a library and then the third one that we tested as I mentioned the outset was for the

1:57:55community center and senior centers and clubhouses we get 60 percent in November 14 and we get 56 percent in November 16.

1:58:04so statistically about the same neither of those reach the two-thirds level that we need to be at currently but they would put this in second position if we were ranking three of these behind the library the next chart shows the series of different tax rates that we did test and

1:58:26even though I said earlier it's somewhat challenging sometimes to find the tax rate statement in the voter handbook some people do and so it's useful to have a sense of where you are in terms of a tax rate um and what kind of support you get there now you don't necessarily need to

1:58:42have two-thirds on this measure if you get two-thirds on a question that we're going to have subsequently that we'll talk about but we don't want this to be a big problem uh and I don't think it is but it still suggests there's some work to be done general terms 57 which you see here

1:59:02across the bottom is the amount per hundred thousand of assessed valuation that people would have to pay in order to get 25 million dollars for a general obligation Bond regardless of what it was for so we get a positive score at roughly 55 percent in November 16 and slightly

1:59:21below that but not statistically significant in November 14. that's a good indication again they don't know anything more than those 75 words at this point and oh yeah it's tax which we're really underscoring with this kind of question but it does tell us that it's not a big red light just that we're

1:59:40going to need to explain what any one of these facilities would be about this also is an aggregate of all three different Bond measures so there are some differential tax rates based on our different Interventional support for different tax rates based on what the base the bonds they're being

2:00:00asked but that's not reflected in this particular chart and error rates tend to make that a little confusing anyway so this is just the average if you will the next uh three sets of slides are really going to become eye charts and I apologize for that for each of the bond

2:00:19measures we asked a list of features or what we might spend the money on and the way we did that is we read an item in this case the public safety fire building fire and police building that meets earthquake standards does that make you more or less likely to support

2:00:36the measure we then get an answer and then say is that much more likely or somewhat more likely on either side of the equation when we're done with all the interviewing we assign numeric values of which you see part of across the bottom of this chart much more likely is it two somewhat more likely is

2:00:53a one a no effect is a zero a somewhat less likely which is not shown here but is part of the calculation is a minus one and a much less likely is a minus two so we have a scale that runs from a plus two to a minus two and we're basically averaging what the scores are and it just makes it

2:01:13easier to understand and to rank them with a great deal of nuance this table breaks into two tiers the first four items are in the top tier and they range in the November 16 which I'm going to use as sort of the reference throughout this because clearly in the the November 16 for the

2:01:33library we do the best um the November 16 is the green bars of each of these two and in the November 16 at the top of this fire and police building that meets earthquake standards is a 0.75 on our scale that equates to 62.4 percent more likely a sports measure falls short of the two-thirds

2:01:54requirement to pass the measure and that is our best feature of this this particular Bond measure we tail off from there into the 50s even in the top tier and then the bottom tier goes down to a 0.2 on our scale which really could be a zero meaning it's a wash half of the

2:02:14people are on one side and half of the people are on the other side so there's not a lot of strength in these particular features now if we look at the library in a comparative sense you'll see that it's substantially higher scale is the same as we've talked before

2:02:34using that ranking you can see all of it here in this particular chart the highest item we have here is a 0.99 so that's quite a bit higher than the top item in the public safety building and that is safe energy efficient library that meets earthquake and fire codes and

2:02:54that's 73 percent at least somewhat more likely to support the measure so you can see given the 62 percent we saw in public safety there's a big swing that's a 10 point difference in the top argument the next one is at 69.7 70 percent children's area and parents

2:03:15for parents children reading space improving access for seniors with disabilities space for Public Access computers in a computer lab space for literacy tutoring programs and a new 21st century library in general all of those are two-thirds or higher so these features of the

2:03:34library test much better than the public safety building at least the top tier there are some that are lower down but they they um there's better a better list at the top moving on to the features of the community center or Senior Center or clubhouses again thinking about the

2:03:55green bars there are some items here that score above the two-thirds as well and in tier one we have the top one two three four five six seven items from a new community center and park Clubhouse with multi-purpose rooms down to Fine Art pottery and craft Studios those

2:04:15range from 68 percent at least somewhat more likely to six down to 64 percent some are more likely so there are several items here that also are above the two-thirds threshold interestingly enough some of the things that are on this list multi-purpose use rooms are

2:04:32not exclusive to a community center or Senior Center but they are also can be built into a library so some of the features on this list could you just clarify how this question was asked so after they gave the responses on whichever facility they were speaking about and and about the

2:04:51tax rate then you kind of asked the question again of you kind of reread the ballot question but with these features stressed uh we don't reread the ballot question we say uh in essence um the measure we're talking about Will and pay for a lot of different programs or

2:05:10projects um within the rubric that we're talking about uh if you knew that it would include a new community center with Park clubhouses with multi-purpose rooms would you be more or less like oh I think okay so we're really just focusing on that part not the entire ballot

2:05:26question question about that certainly I think I noticed on the public safety issue that it on earthquakes um meet okay that meet earthquake standards are the keywords but then if you flip over to the next screen so that's you see the same wording except different

2:05:52except it's for the library now right yeah and then it's a different one so and it's a different a substantially higher here right so that's kind of saying that it's only partly because of the future it's partly because it's the library uh that's true that's absolutely true so I

2:06:11assume that would apply to any category and that's why we keep them all split um they're part of part of what's probably going on here obviously this is a survey not a focus group and if we were in a focus group we might say you know well you know why is and if we were comparing

2:06:30them why is the earthquake and safety codes more important than a library than it is in the public safety building and they may say well because I go to it but this you know we don't didn't go there that's but it is correct that there's a difference and there's got to be some

2:06:49reason for that difference and is that tip often true yes yes yeah yeah yeah I mean one and one of the challenges candidly the public safety buildings have both in surveys and in focus groups we've done is well fire equipment needs to get out of a public safety building as you know in

2:07:09an earthquake they would rather think that the police are always in their neighborhood and so they don't see the the need as often for the public safety building to be as survivable than the library where they instant library has kids in it okay I get that mm-hmm

2:07:33which is not to say that the other isn't important as well as you know so uh the next question that we switched to was a set of supporting statements and this one two is long and complicated and split into actually four parts the first part here is of questions that we

2:07:56asked of all three samples so these are think of these as positive statements and we said pretty much the same thing in this case uh the first one is uh given uh that the measure would give El Cerrito local control over local funds and could not be taken by the state if

2:08:17you heard that would be more or less likely to sport the measure now this only has the more much more likely or somewhat more likely side of the equation it doesn't actually have less likely because we've characterized them as positive statements and it doesn't

2:08:30make sense that a positive state would make you less likely to support the measure so it really doesn't make sense on the phone when other things are going on in the background so the scale changes a little bit necessarily these numbers move up but um there are a variety of different

2:08:47positives here that would be common to all of them and in fact on this chart the top uh one two three four five six seven are all basically tied at the same level and those include like I just said give El Cerrito local control over local funds that can't be taken by the state

2:09:07that's virtually the highest argument in every survey that we do what are whatever it is for and that's 65 percent at least somewhat more likely in the November 16 environment new facilities will use green materials is also positive it's at 64 percent if I jump

2:09:24down the list though you can see I'm starting to go down um below the two-thirds level citizens oversight and mandatory Financial audits that's only 60 percent more report to measure so you can see that that's dropping below the two substantially below the two-thirds level

2:09:41but there are some things to work with here now again as we did with the features on the positive statements we broke them down into the three specific libraries with specific things at the top of this list we would make sure that fire and police building is operational and

2:09:58emergency which sort of speaks to that point that we just discussed and that is 66 percent at least somewhat more likely so when you put it in that context people say oh okay well that makes sense and we get to the two-thirds level but just to the two-thirds level we don't

2:10:12actually exceed that next is maintain emergency response times for both police and fire at virtually the same level as is the third one El Cerrito Police Department crime prevention efforts will be more effective and then in the top tier is also police facility doesn't

2:10:29have adequate space for evidence that well it's in the top tier it's down to 61 percent at least just a clear what you said it says here in the text above the bar charts current police station does not is not big enough to support current EC Police Department made at least 60 percent of

2:10:46the voters somewhat more likely but you said it it equates to about two-thirds support overall no no the first one it does the the last one ah the first one yeah the fourth one down is the this is 60 got it thank you or or higher than 60 going up to the top four but he's to the key takeaway is

2:11:08here we do get to two-thirds for the Public Safety in the we need to have the building operational in an emergency but we just get to two-thirds when we turn to the next slide again these are the positive statements for the library we see higher scores at the top of this list we have

2:11:30the positive that the new library will be larger than the current Library that's 1.17 ranking there of the green bar for the November 16 is 72 percent at least some are more likely so again you see that the top positive for the libraries is higher than the top positive for the public safety

2:11:49Bill and in fact the top two are at 72 percent here the second one being new library will offer after school and summer programs for youth then we start dropping down into the mid 60s within the next three positives in terms of the community Senior Center Clubhouse Bond measure we have some good

2:12:12scores here as well they're basically all at the top tier they're all pretty good and sick but not statistically different from each other offer after school and summer programs for youth is 69 to help pay for operational and generating uh operations by generating

2:12:31rental revenue is 64 percent create more programs for older and younger adults the 66 percent spaces for recreation health and wellness activities 65 educational and recreational activities for senior at 69 so those are all in that two-thirds range the important note here again is

2:12:53that several of these things could happen in a library too it gets back to that multi-purpose room kind of multi-purpose use that can be accommodated in libraries as well as community of your senior centers ah so at that point we turn to the opposite side of the equation as I mentioned at

2:13:14the outset and test opposition statements for things that might be negatives and we do this the same way we tested the positives we read the item and say if you heard that this hurts seniors and those on fixed incomes would you be more likely to oppose the measure

2:13:32or somewhat more likely to oppose the measure so the higher the score the more negative it is we don't put a minus sign in front of it to make it seem bad and while it seems sort of strange when you're thinking about it from a plus minus scenario it makes more sense to do

2:13:48it this way to the interviewee on the phone um and we've done it that way over the years and successfully so so that top item hurt seniors and those on fixed incomes doesn't necessarily have to be true just has to be something that the opposition might say and is it typical to lump those two

2:14:08together uh yes yeah we see that I mean not so much from our perspective but from Reading ballot arguments against it very often is yeah it's very often spoken um whether or not it's true right okay right yeah we see it all the time in ballot arguments against measures and it

2:14:29is usually they focus I mean they're trying to evoke an emotional response so they're looking for you know it doesn't matter what we're building right or what the money would be spent for it's all about how do they evoke that emotional response and we're just trying to

2:14:43reflect that to make sure that we're being uh accurate in terms of what happens in the real world uh and I guess the other point is that whilst these are not necessarily true there's no way to vet that in the world of uh ballot arguments I can see a nice Venn diagram but okay

2:15:04yeah no I mean the reality is the positive the pro side gets to say whatever they want nobody can stop them and if we are sort of about more Bound By The Truth uh because people will contest it but the negative side they're not um and you see negative ballot arguments

2:15:21are all over the map so again at the top of this list is hurt seniors and those on fixed income that's actually 51 more likely to oppose the measure and I think that is the Big Driver um and probably the most important takeaway from this is that it's important to explain what a bond

2:15:41measure is now Bond measure doesn't have a senior exemption like a parcel tax does but at the same time it has a de facto Senior Advantage that nobody thinks of when they're kind of at the Top Line level here and that is that if you bought your house 30 years ago you're

2:16:01not paying what your neighbor who just bought the house next door is paying in in terms of your mortgage or your property tax and in fact in some cases it could be a tenth of what the current property taxes are since it's based on assessed valuation at the time you purchase not

2:16:19current market value and that is a big deal and complicated process to explain to seniors who would are responding negatively based on that argument public employees salaries and benefits are out of control with the second highest and that's at 41 percent more likely to pose it the economic recovery

2:16:42is fragile is also at 41 and wouldn't need the measure if we hadn't wasted our tax dollars again doesn't matter if it's true or not we know it's not but that's at 37 percent more likely to oppose the measure so that's right or getting very close to the one-third level that we'd

2:17:00like these to be below I think as I said the the hurt seniors that needs to be addressed the public safety or the public employee's salaries sorry uh and benefits needs to be addressed by the time this might be on the ballot the economic recovery may have solved itself

2:17:19and people won't be saying it's fragile as it is today but that's the way we have to deal with today's environment so some negatives uh and particularly one that I think is impactful and we will have to address as we move forward at this point in the survey they've

2:17:38heard the general description of each of the ballot measures separately they've heard tax rates they've heard what we've spent the money on they've heard positives they've heard negatives they have not really said I'm thinking about this negative versus that positive but at this point

2:17:57we force them to synthesize everything that they've heard just like what happens on Election Day or election month if you vote absentee and we come back to the ballot question and they've heard all these things pro and con and they have to make up their mind for the

2:18:12public safety building you can see we get are at 56 percent in November 14 57 in November 16 that's actually a 0.3 percent decline from the first test not statistically significant but the bottom line is in either an election environment do we get to the two-thirds

2:18:31or approach environment for the library in November 14 we're at 63 percent uh and in November 16 we're at 67 so that exceeds the uh the two-thirds level it does not cover the error rate that we have to deal with um but it does exceed the two-thirds level um at the margin and that does did come

2:18:56down one percent from the first test and again I think that the um the senior our argument against is what's due driving that here particularly since seniors tend to like libraries and support libraries but if they know that the tax is going to hurt them that obviously had an impact

2:19:12although statistically speaking there isn't a difference between this and the first test either and then finally with the uh the Community Center Senior Center Clubhouse Bond uh we're at 61 in November 14 and 63 percent in November 16. that's actually an increase of uh some six and

2:19:33a half percent from the first test in November 16. so that comes up substantially but not enough to get to the two-thirds level so clearly the library is the the priority uh in this comparison of the three facilities not to say that the others aren't important they are but the library just fares

2:19:51better at the ballot now the last three slides that I've got uh just summarized quickly that alternative approach which would be What If This Were a special tax for a special sales tax for just those facilities for the public safety building we actually lose support uh down to 47

2:20:10percent in 14 and 49 in 16.

2:20:16for the library we lose support as well it's down to 60 percent and 14 and 59 and 16 and for the um Community senior Clubhouse spawn we're at 52 and 57 respectively so we we lose support everywhere for when if it's a sales tax having said that there is also a position bias built into

2:20:42this that is not calculable and what that is the reason for people is to make it give us the best test of each one without having a list of taxes we're breaking that rule here we're having a list through tax tax we're having a second tax so you've heard Bond measure

2:21:01for library and then sales tax for Library so this is always goes lower and it ranges between 5 and 10 points lower because of the position biases without split sampling six different ways which is not practical in El Cerrito and it's expensive there's just no other way to do it but I still think

2:21:22that the support for a sales tax approach as opposed to a bond approach is more problematic so in summary we think that there is certainly a numerical base of support for a library Bond measure in the November 16 election universe and that it makes sense to begin preparing for that possibility

2:21:48there's a lot of things to do as staff can identify and I'll leave that to them well support for the library bond is higher in 16 it is statistically the same in 14 whether you could make a 14 Ballot or not is questionable in terms of sales adapt in place but again we still sort of like

2:22:11the November 16 because there is better support and it is a presidential election so the type of turnout is different and so we would expect to do better in that election um there is um because of the Air Raids while the library appears to be the favorite um I have to note that they are really

2:22:36not that much difference between all three of the measures but if I head to bet I would bet that the library would win and the other two probably wouldn't um even with the air rates because we don't see that we're that far off in most cases uh in terms of the tax rates there's a

2:22:59little sensitivity as we discussed at uh at 60 at 57 which is the 25 million dollar Bond fifty dollars does a little better but that doesn't get you the resources you need so we need to keep that in mind and what that probably suggests is that you need to start planning this process

2:23:21not just plant him if you decide on a library not just doing the details of planning a library and coming up with the financial numbers and and all of the details that would go into that but also starting the community outreach because there is some softness in the tax rate

2:23:38for all of the measures or each of the measures to be more correct and we all we don't really cover the air rate even for the library so there is some work to do this is not just to put it put on the calendar a date in 2016 where you're going to put it on the ballot and

2:23:55then hope to win you have to do some work and I think the intervening time between now and and when you put this measure on the ballot includes not only planning and having a specific program for the voters to vote on but also having done Outreach to the voters and

2:24:14talking to them about the needs for the library if that's your choice and that means there's some work to do and then of course there's a campaign as there was for measure a and as there was for measure R but it's probably more like the campaign for measure a than it

2:24:30was the campaign from as you are because measure R was only a simple majority these Jarvis what uh measure R only required a simple majority because it was a general tax whereas measure a was a specific tax obviously they were both sales taxes but this is a special tax and it requires

2:24:52two-thirds today that could change but we can't plan for that until it happens yeah I just had a question since you said you're a betting man um so my question is if if the 2014 ballot measure actually did pass would you say that they the the um as far as comparing the library to

2:25:21the public safety of the community center would you say that they would all have equal chance of passing if that were the case in 2000 I mean we'd still go for this in 2016 but the threshold the voting yes would be different uh yeah that's correct it would probably be

2:25:3655 that's what we everybody's been talking about um and what it I what I think it means is that the library covers the air raid then because we're at 67 percent we've got about a seven point error rate so that's down to 60 and we got a five percent cushion right the pub the

2:25:53um Community senior Clubhouse is not quite as good but they're still when you do the math a little bit of a cushion between where they would wind up probably in the high mid 50s and 55 percent the public safety building doesn't have that yeah if you take the air raid out

2:26:10you're still below 55 percent well it's like you said the libraries were visible it's seen in a different way right children are there and most of us probably don't end up in the police station which is a good thing right all right um politically speaking if you go November of 2014 with the bond

2:26:33measure and you narrowly fail is that going to make it harder to pass it in 2016 I don't think it does from the voters perspective I think what it does is from your supporter your core supporters the people who are out walking precincts the people who are contributing to a

2:26:52campaign obviously that's all independent of the city it makes it very difficult for them to say I'm going to muster all that effort again um and and it is a bigger effort going from 2014 to 2016 because the turnout increases so the costs of running a campaign necessarily go up because there

2:27:13are more people to reach whether that is door-to-door or with you know Direct Mail they're just simply more people that are voting so you have to talk to more people when the reverse happens when you fail in a larger turnout election like the presidential and then follow up with a

2:27:31lower turnout that's actually easier because you don't have to talk to as many people you've covered everybody already and you just have to work on the people who are swing voters it's interesting and then my other question is once we pass a measure for the library

2:27:46or the public safety building how long after that would we actually have the building complete approximately I'm looking to the city manager I wouldn't expect the pollsters to know this one although you've seen many campaigns in many buildings built probably so maybe you could handle

2:28:07um assuming we have a site it's probably two to three years two to three years thanks no questions well another question on that is um so if if some of the things that pulled real high were things like as far as the library is concerned after school programs helping children

2:28:30with homework that kind of thing and those are programming um items let's say it really doesn't have anything to do with the status of the library and so right now we have restricted hours for the library because there's they're not we're not being supported by the County library system

2:28:46and and they have their funding issues I mean just the county-wide not just Library so if you were going to do a bond measure and I guess maybe this is a City attorney a question I don't really know can you do any money for programming I mean how do you address so that unmet

2:29:03on unmet need basically and I don't maybe you don't even know that answer I mean maybe maybe it's a stupid question no I don't think it's stupid it's absolutely not a stupid question it's just um it's one that is complicated um you know for the most part the answer

2:29:22is no um my experience with this is that um working with Bond Council there are sometimes some room for Capital related expenditures that that go to programming but that for the most part you know you can't entirely fund you know a library related program out of a general

2:29:40obligation Bond the money has to be spent on programming there are tangential expenses that can go to support programming though and then and then you're you're down to a conversation with your bond Council about um about the the propriety of the the support of the support for the program

2:29:56relative to the the um approved uses of the bond proceeds and the items that you see here on the um uh the the chart um are summaries what we wind up doing with all bonds um is we we talk about the spaces to provide the programs right uh which is sort of the best way to to get to the

2:30:25outcome I mean at the end of the day people don't want a building just to have a building they want a building for some activity to take place and that's the real benefit of it so so you have to make that bridge from if we don't have the space or to do whatever program

2:30:42we're talking about we can't do it and and that works better um it's sort of for all Bond measures that's the case we don't really talk about the bricks and mortar as much as the benefits of the brexit yeah additionally um the a lot of what was provided to Brian

2:31:00as far as some of the positive statements that staff discussed were taken from the first the 2006 needs assessment and the building program some of the survey results and we'll continue to feed toward the update that we've scheduled so all of these features as opposed to building a building to fit

2:31:20a bunch of programs in we would then this would help inform the architect in the future as to how to build the building because we want these features in it so it actually does have some Synergy there but we are very cognizant that yes any additional hours any additional programming that's the

2:31:37responsibility of the city and whether it's in a measure or not that is something we definitely need to address in the future so I have a question that maybe is a little bit off point that it kind of surprised me about the data um there's been just so much talk about

2:31:57lowering the sales tax threshold or or um changing the um the ceiling so that you can have for example we're at the ceiling here so we actually couldn't in the next several years do a sales tax correct I think there is some room there is some room there there is it's two

2:32:25percent split between the county and the city and right now the Transportation Authority thinks we're preventing them from doing it I don't believe that the two together add up to two percent that's counted as part of the County's share okay but but between so including CCTA I don't believe that

2:32:48it adds up to okay that that's very interesting because I mean it really is because they think it is I I think that's a really good question and I have a follow-up to that if it's okay it's that threshold only for general sales tax for example I'm very interested at

2:33:04some point in proposing a tax on sugar sweetened Beverages and that would be a specific sales tax would that count against the threshold also it would it the way the the revenue and Taxation code Provisions are written it's two percent um so what we're really talking about is

2:33:21a transactions and use tax which is defined somewhat differently from the sales tax it all it's all the same rate when you go to the store and buy something um but the way the revenue and Taxation code Provisions are written it's two percent regardless of whether or not

2:33:35it's a general or special and between the city and the county and from the the board of equalizations perspective Local transportation authorities sales tax measures count as part of the counties portion of it so they count towards the two percent as well so all those combined can't exceed

2:33:53two percent um whether or not it's general or special and in most cases the like the county and the and the transportation will end up being special taxes so they end up it it all counts towards the same two percent no matter what percentage of goods sold end up getting the tax applied

2:34:11it's yeah it's it's the way I mean it's hard to I realize it's a little bit weird talking about percentages and or what you mean by a percentage changes depending on certain things but the way the the state law is written it says you can the the city the count and the county can can both both

2:34:28have authority to do this but the total rate between the two can't add more than two percent to the existing Statewide sales tax rate so if the Statewide rate is I forget what it is right now seven and a half or um that that can't be right I'm not sure exactly what the state rate is but it

2:34:48can't you can't go two percent above that combining County and city taxes and what about um for example Bart which is multi-county I believe they're counted as a Transportation Authority but they may have special um they're in the two percent I'm actually not positive about bart

2:35:08um because they may have special uh um special legislation authorizing them to to implement a sales tax I'm not positive about that okay could we get the answer yes thank you yeah good question um because what I was kind of wondering because the result getting back to my

2:35:26initial question um I kind of assumed that in our jurisdiction it's easier to pass the sales tax because the last several times around that's what it's looked like yeah I think it's easy certainly it's easy to or you can say it's easier to pass a simple majority or general sales tax

2:35:46which is what we did with measure R um and we did so yeah that's easy today was two-thirds an a was two-thirds but a was in a different world a was before the stock market collapsed and before the recession started and it was in a very very positive primary election uh for tax measures up and down

2:36:09the state we saw measures passing all over the place because of the turnout for President Obama then Senator Obama uh measure R was in a world where the economy had already tanked were clearly in a world where we have a fragile recovery and people are still cognizant of that

2:36:33because we saw that as one of the negatives right now now by in two years or in by 2014 that may have changed and by 2016 one hopes it certainly will have changed and that we might be in an environment more like uh the 2008 we can't tell that today because people

2:36:51can't they just no matter how many times you want to try to ask them well what do you think it's going to be like in 2016 they don't know they're just voting or whether they're voting or talking to their pollster they're talking about how they feel today so we're not in that

2:37:07environment yet um we may be so any other um comments are there speaker slips we have one request to speak okay Tom panis good evening mayor Pro tem Abelson members of the council and City staff my name is Tom panason I live at [address removed] in El Cerrito um the new library committee would like

2:37:43to thank the city and Godby research for the carefully constructed and thorough polling that was performed in may as well as the careful analysis that was assembled and so enlightenly presented by Mr Godby this evening you won't be surprised to hear that we on the committee were pleased by the

2:37:58results of the poll our review of the polling results tell us that the community's strong supports a new library now a lot of hard work begins the number of topics that the city in the community will need to jointly address in the next months and years as large some of these include the entire

2:38:16Community needs to be drawn into the process of deciding what the final project will actually include and not include we have to develop criteria for site selection and review sites we need to fundraise we need to select an architect we need to analyze the various ways to

2:38:30pay for the project we need to organize a campaign to ensure the financing plans approved by the voters and a lot more [Music] the new library committee plans and expects to be involved in all these activities we stand at your disposal wanting to help with any and every task

2:38:44we look forward to the day of financial plan is approved by the citizens of El Cerrito and beyond that we look forward to the day El Cerritos new library opens thank you for your time this evening foreign thank you and um I guess the only other question I would have is

2:39:02so now what is our next step is it what's said in our packet sure so if the city council essentially concurs with the the recommendation of um Mr Godby particularly when it comes to um pursued development of a library to place on the ballot we're looking generally

2:39:24um at November 2016 then if that's the direction of the council this evening the staff will go and essentially do a lot of the homework that and begin the homework process that we've discussed including particularly citing selection um going out as a request for proposals

2:39:41for architectural services all of the various reports that need to be done public information and what have you and having a year or two to have that ample time to do that you know I actually exchanged emails with council member Bridges earlier the more I think about

2:39:56all of the work we have to do 2016 doesn't really seem that far away and so with council's concurrence that would be we would come back to you later this year with more of a flushing out of implementation and particularly once the needs assessment is complete the update

2:40:12is complete rather I would also like to um to let you know that we do have a tentative date for the uh Contra Costa Library strategic planning meeting that will be held here at City Hall would be September 9th and I will get you more information on that as as we flush that

2:40:31out but that will be held here and that is actually going to be in partnership with the with the Contra Costa Library not only for their strategic plan but being able to give us and inform us on our needs assessment and the needs of the community so that is actually

2:40:45happening currently so that would be the direction that we would move if the council so agrees I have a question about that so are they are they making uh I shouldn't say special dispensation but are they coming here because we asked them to are they going to all cities I believe they're

2:41:01going to all of the Cities that's what I've been told but I am working directly with Liz Ruland who's the librarian our El Cerrito librarian and she's excited about you know this whole process as well and that we can we can essentially Not Duplicate efforts when it comes to

2:41:15finding out what the community wants in its Library not just for services but what would fit within the building and the second question about the county-wide Strategic plan is starting now when do they expect it to be complete because I think that's gonna would dovetail with the needs

2:41:31assessment or help us with that information I don't know the answer that question does anybody actually in real time we have a couple of County Library Commissioners in the audience would they be able to better answer that question sure I'm just trying to figure out where

2:41:49we are Tom panis County Library Commissioners everything fly Fair Mountain El Cerrito if I recall correctly the last strategic plan was never finished five years ago I don't think that's the intention this time but I believe we're talking six to 12 months Stephen

2:42:12thank you I figured it would be that long yeah yes go ahead Mark um I'm not willing to give up on November of 2014 as a possibility because realistically speaking we're not going to have a library before 2019 if we wait till 2016 and I'm not sure our existing building is going to hold up for another

2:42:36six years and if the threshold gets reduced to 55 I think we could confidently go forward in November of 2014 so I'm not ready to accept the recommendation for 2016 because uh I'm optimistic that um the statistical difference between the two was not so much staff time and staff

2:43:01what staff has on the various plates spinning in the air is a significant consideration but I would much rather see us be aggressive and do whatever we can to not give up on getting this project completed earlier rather than later we can and we can certainly explore that

2:43:22possibility as well that'd be great uh well one comment if I might um the approval to change the state constitution has to be on the November 2014 ballot oh so now there has been some discussion that anything that is on the ballot locally could be grandfathered right

2:43:43um based on the timing of and how the measure is written they're right when their start takes effect and when ours takes effect but there is a gamble associated with that um you might win and you might not you might you might get 58 or 70 60 percent 60 and you know this it loses in Orange

2:44:05County big and not to point fingers if I could also add if if we were sitting here today and it's essentially a year out from when you'd have to place a measure on the ballot if we had site control then I think it would be a different story but right now we don't

2:44:25good point because it's going to be harder to get something passed if we don't have a site locked down that we can Market in that campaign um I have a question about this meeting that's on the ninth is that a daytime meeting or a night time it'll be I believe we've scheduled it for 7 00 p.m

2:44:46yes and again that's tentative right now I'm going to confirm that with the county but that's what we have tentatively scheduled right now so okay how long uh getting back to this the question um that Mark was asking about timing um how long does it take to run a um

2:45:05a complete campaign done well uh well I think if we again look at this point in time uh if if you um we're thinking about November 14 just because it's the closest the the math works the same or the timing works the same for 16.

2:45:22um you've got uh three and a half months really from when the council puts the measure on the ballot to the election so that is the independent campaign so that would be in either year basically August or much of August depending on your meeting schedule uh September and

2:45:39October and the first week in November um to do a public information effort in on a note with a November election you can't do a whole lot during this summer so what that means is that you have to hit the ground running in January of the even year and use January February March

2:46:00and April and in into may as your public Outreach Community Building Coalition building that can be done by the city because you haven't made the decision to put something on the ballot you're just asking for public input um going back before that you really can't

2:46:19do much during the holidays you can do some work in the fall so you could be doing work September and October of this year doing that Outreach and public information go then dark for the holidays start again January through may make a decision in probably late July

2:46:39and then the campaign that would be the idea I guess that wasn't quite my question my question was more I was wondering about the elapsed time it takes in a to if you you were saying if you were giving advice and I'm not sure you do on that topic but if you were giving advice on how to

2:46:59run a enough good effective campaign that would maximize results how long would that take how along would that campaign take like um six months 12 months what's the number well I think that it would start in January of that year whether it's 2014 or 2016 at the latest and that

2:47:18would be a concerted public process sponsored by the city up leading up to the council putting something on the ballot and then having three and a half months to run a political independent campaign and if you do less than that I think that that's problematic so what I'm I think

2:47:37I'm looking for one number so it looks to me like the number is that's almost a year yeah almost a year yeah and and you have to realize there are there are dark times within that year where you're not really doing a whole lot because people are it's the holidays or the political

2:47:52equation for the fundraising part of that independent campaign is even more lead time wouldn't you say that often happens once there's sort of clear Direction when you're going and there is time to do that I mean if the council is going to consider this again in either year in July of 14 or 16.

2:48:13I usually know that before that and the library committee can start their fundraising having said that we've done work for parcel tax and hopefully a bond in Marin County and when they did their parcel tax in 2010 they started two years in advance um and by the time the Board of

2:48:33Supervisors put the measure on the ballot county-wide measure they had already raised two hundred thousand dollars for the campaign campaign follow-up four Geo bonds for facilities what's the minimum amount of information that gives voters sort of comfort about

2:48:49what you're going to do but the city manager mentioned site control what is the minimum information the voters want to see that you have done in terms of due diligence for this building and then how good do your cost estimates have to be for what you're going to do and you

2:49:04know how conceptual can they be I think your cost estimates are are important you need to have an idea of what it's going to cost and you have to live within that budget um I think you have to I have an idea of what kinds of facilities or what kind of rooms you're going to have you know

2:49:22we're going to have space for books or have space for children's programs we're going to spend those multi-purpose spaces that we talked about but you don't have to have a drawing says this is what it's going to look like as a matter of fact sometimes that's counterproductive I don't like

2:49:39that trim along the top exactly everybody's architectural but but you want to cite I think you want a site okay thank you okay so in terms of um do we is there the things that you mentioned Karen um could be done sounded to me like they had dollars attached to them unless

2:50:02staff was doing all the work um and which I yeah well yes absolutely they can't so I'm not gonna do all the work we would have to particularly going out to bid for architectural services okay should we hire a public information Consultants Etc where were we thinking

2:50:18that money might come from we have not identified funding at this time for that either okay so what are we are you asking any decision at all of us now or are you just going to be coming back later as it says yes my our intent is to come back later but I wanted to not only present the

2:50:39results to the council and make sure that you understand and have the ability to ask any questions but essentially if this is the direction that we should be going to and your concurrence with that I believe I have notes to that effect unless there is any additional comments

2:50:55from the council we can flush out more of the details and bring that to you later great okay wonderful thank you very much thank you very much thank you I'm very thorough report very well presented I appreciate it thank you as always and uh with that let's move on to

2:51:13council assignments and liaison reports are there any um well we heard from park and rec commission a little bit tonight they did meet on June 26th and um as Robin Appley stated um you know there were some issues about not having a lot of information prior to the meeting

2:51:34because of the closed sessions comments made by more than one commissioner were that they were in favor of the project for Busby because there's nothing flat there is it might serve a minority of users um some people hadn't seen the property weren't familiar with the property and

2:51:57that you know as commented on earlier that a big a bigger portion than they wanted was being taken from WWE funds But ultimately they did vote three to two with a um probably one of their longest meetings ever that they would pass a motion to allow us to take up to 475 thousand

2:52:18dollars of WWE funds for the Busby project uh jpa met on uh oh and one other thing about Park Mark I'm sorry I'm sorry Chris that I have to bring this up again but um I'm not sure that the joint um the city of El Cerrito and the West Contra Costa joint facility use

2:52:38agreement has technically been signed and delivered to us yet no um so there were some issues with the custodian and some of their local One union and some some issues but I guess it hasn't been signed yet so I'm sorry that our West County our a board member has already left to not hear that maybe

2:52:59we ought to have these at the beginning of the meeting um additionally jpa met on June 19th and I had presented to you that there were some issues with um the turf the artificial turf that's down at the Gilman fields and they have had the company that makes the turf come out and

2:53:18see if we can get some of that repair work done under warranty which they think can happen so that's good and they're also did a survey of all of the fields in neighboring cities and what they charge hourly because as you know we're going to need to come up with a

2:53:34bunch more money and probably around 2015-16 to replace some of those fields even under warranty it does have a lifetime and they did a really nice complete survey about what adults are being charged and what youth are being charged for grass versus synthetic in

2:53:53different cities like Albany they surveyed Berkeley Emeryville El Cerrito Richmond Walnut Creek San Francisco and Albany so of their those fields that aren't at Gilman and um this was partially done because there will be they're anticipating a fee increase to the users and there was a lot of

2:54:12discussion about that because there's a lot of people who probably can't afford to um have much higher fees than they're currently paying but it may be a necessity so they're doing a pretty complete study they're going to talk to some user groups and see if they can

2:54:29build consensus um with them to go forward and have a fee increase in the users uh design review board did not meet okay other I'm happy to go I went to the Planning Commission meeting in June and you may or may not know that they took up the ATT Wireless they're called Das boxes

2:54:53and these are I believe it's six proposed um facilities and the facilities are 7 to 11 feet tall and they are proposed to be placed on utility existing utility poles um some along Seaview on the 800 block and then a block or so up and a block or so below so during that meeting there

2:55:13were maybe 15 residents from that area coming to ask a lot of questions and speak out against those projects we had two ATT Representatives as well as an independent um electrical engineer consultant that they hire to come in and do independent analyzes having to do with what the

2:55:32electromagnetic field is that comes off of these types of wires and whether or not they can form with the federal government's guidelines for those so it was quite long and contentious meeting eventually the Planning Commission did vote unanimously I believe I'll have to

2:55:49make sure of that at our next meeting but unanimously to approve I'm sorry that's not right there was at least one dissenting vote um uh so they did vote to approve and move it forward and then subsequently to that I understand an appeal was filed so we will be hearing more on those on those

2:56:06items um and Fab met a couple days ago while I was on vacation but I got the update from Lisa and they reviewed our investment report as well as our accounting and control policies and they're still in the future planning to take up a bit more research on the reserve policy

2:56:27um I had carefully prepared some reports and I managed it when I got here got here get here when I got here I dumped them all uh in a stack and I'm having a little trouble finding them so I'll do this from the as best I can and as quickly as I can um and uh first of all I wanted to

2:56:44mention um that I went to the mayor's conference as did a number of other council members here and um we heard a presentation From Grace kunigan who's the new general manager of the BART system and she gave I I thought a real interesting presentation on the work that needs to

2:57:05be done at BART to maintain the existing infrastructure you know that means the the cars the um the uh the track you know and everything just to keep what we've already got um held together basically and she talked about the work they're doing they will be replacing for example I think

2:57:27all of the upholstery within a very short period of time um and if you haven't seen it they're going to I would call it vinyl or plastic I'm not sure what the material is but it's not cloth and for which a number of people are very grateful I get from what I hear and

2:57:48they will also be allowing more room around the entrances to the cars for bicycles and for standee so that when they have a lot of packed trains which um is already happening they'll have more capacity to handle that and I also um see what do I want to mention the um

2:58:18the West Contra Costa Transportation advisory committee passed the budget but they did reduce dues because of a um an excess of funds in their account but that's a one-time reduction and um won't happen again next year the way it looks now anyway and um I think those are the main things that I

2:58:45can remember uh having um tossed my notes aside so to speak um which is due to my hand anyway so with that um that's it on the reports then so we will adjourn this concurrent meeting of the city council public financing Authority and pension trust board and our next city council meeting will be

2:59:12held on Tuesday August the 20th at 7 pm here in the council chambers and thank you all for coming