City Council Meeting December 3, 2013

0:00:02thank you all for coming I am uh convening the uh regular city council meeting of Tuesday December 3rd at 7 pm please let the records show that all five council members are present and ready to do business I'm going to announce that we did have a closed session right before this and as a

0:00:27result of that closed session we have concluded um the performance evaluation of the city manager um with that if oh I get to lead a moment of silence or the Pledge of Allegiance and tonight I I'm in honor of council member Friedman I'm going to choose a moment of silence

0:00:49so if you all join me in a moment of silence honoring our flag thank you um that brings us to item two Council and staff Communications foreign I've got a few um supervisor Joya I see you're in the audience your picture is on this uh this brochure about uh aeds

0:01:37and and I and I want to make sure that everyone knows that we actually have an AED in the lobby here and what this service is is uh it allows you to locate one of those uh automatic electric defibrillators by using a service in the in the county you can call up if you're

0:01:57no if you're on a site where someone's having a heart attack you call this service and they'll tell you where the AED is located and you might be able to save someone's life um and it's a 9-1-1 call and so you just call 9-1-1 and and tell them that you need to locate an AED and they will

0:02:16assist you with locating that AED so um thank you for placing for you would successfully placed 700 locations I don't need I didn't check to see if bars is uh is on the so and he's got a bunch in his garage too right um and then the other thing is that Wednesday December 18th from 10 a.m to 7

0:02:48P.M here at El Cerrito City Hall um upstairs in the shoddy room and then downstairs in the city library City Lobby between 5 30 and 7. there are two important events recognizing The Chiang Mai home and uh this is sponsored by the El Cerrito Historical Society so that is

0:03:07Wednesday December 18th here at City Hall 10 to 5 30 upstairs and 5 37 in the lobby anyone else councilmember do you have any options great um at this time we would normally move on to item three oral Communications from the public but we have a special guest here this

0:03:31evening and I would like to move on to item 4A before moving on to oral Communications because our guest does need to move on to other meetings on his way to Stockholm so I would like to move on to item 4A um which is a proclamation uh recognizing Dr Randy sheckman upon the

0:03:55ward of the 2013-2013 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine and I'm going to read from the proclamation um whereas Randy sheckman along with his wife Nancy walls are 37-year residents of the city of El Cerrito thank you that's fantastic whereas Dr scheckman obtained his PhD in

0:04:211974 under the supervision of Arthur kornberg a normal Nobel Prize winner of 1959. and he is pres a professor of cell and development Dole biology at the University of California Berkeley and his UC Berkeley's 22nd Nobel Laureate and and first at UC Berkeley to receive

0:04:43the prize in the area of physiology or medicine and whereas Dr sheckman has won the 2013 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his role in revealing the Machinery that regulates the transport and secretion of protein in cells he shares this prize with James Rothman

0:05:02of Yale University and Thomas sudhoff of Stanford University Who as a group have solved how yeast secrete proteins and was able to coax yeast to release useful proteins drugs such as insulin and human growth hormone uh enabling the biotechnology industry to exploit the secretion systems in yeast

0:05:29to create and release pharmaceutical products and Industrial enzymes today one third of the insulin used worldwide by diabetics is produced by yeast and the entire world's supply of the hepatitis B vaccine is from yeast now therefore the city council of the city of El Cerrito hereby celebrates and

0:05:55commends Dr scheckman for the award of the 2013 Nobel Prize in physiology award medicine for his role in revealing the Machinery that regulates the transport and secretion of proteins in cells and declared December 10th which is the date King Carl the 16th Gustav of Sweden will confer the Nobel

0:06:15Prize metal diploma and prize on Dr shepman the city council declares December 10th Randy sheckman day [Applause] do you have a microphone no that's okay I've got one more thing to give you it's our pleasure to give this gift to you okay it's our pleasure to give this gift to you and I've Got My

0:07:08Mind here it is a shirt that puts El Cerrito on the same status as some of the greatest cities on our planet good morning thank you very much this is a terrific I'm so pleased to be here tonight to be recognized in this way uh 37 years has gone by very quickly um we moved here from San Diego where I

0:07:45was a postdoctoral fellow uh we first lived on balra a rental for a year and then we moved to Yuba Street and we've been in the same house for 36 years and I think we'll I think we'll stay our children were born there uh they've grown and gone so we're there by

0:08:03ourselves but still it's a wonderful neighborhood and there are actually some people on our block who've been there longer than we have so uh on October 6th I returned from a long trip to Germany where I was getting some other award and I got back at night and uh I was tired and uh I

0:08:26went to sleep knowing that the next morning this this um process goes on but not thinking that I would be called but four hours later I was called it was 1 20 in the morning the first person well I hugged Nancy and then I called my dad my 86 year old father who

0:08:44has been telling me that he's not going to live forever and I better make this happen soon I called my kids they were they were shocked and amazed I called my best friend and I called the publicity officer at Berkeley who then mobilized a team uh two women were at my house at 2

0:09:0230 in the morning when uh when in Stockholm they had the press conference to make the announcement and so from that moment on my life has not been the same TV Camera Crews showed up um uh the neighbors started to awaken they could see some commotion on I started to

0:09:20get cards the most interesting card I got was from a neighbor down the street who said sent me a very plain card and went open it up and it says you know I went to the Dollar Store and there were no cards saying congratulations Nobel Laureate so this will have to do and then he said

0:09:39uh you know I'm so grateful to you for raising the property values in our block because if I ever if I ever have to sell sell my house I'll be able to say yeah I've got a Nobel Laureate living three houses down [Music] so it's been it's been a treat um exhausting

0:09:58uh but tomorrow Nancy and I get on a plane that's it [Applause] and thank you again for coming this evening any comments we'll move back to item three which is oral Communications from the public uh we have six speakers the first of which is Kim Coles so we do have a

0:10:33lighted system which we use to time the speakers it's here in front it'll start with a green light with a minute with 30 seconds left it will go with a minute left it'll go to yellow and then uh it'll be red when I ask you to start wrapping up your comments thank you

0:10:51thank you good evening mayor and City Council Members my name is Kim Coles and I work for the American Cancer Society as a matter of fact I'm the staff partner to many Volunteers in your community who organize the annual El Cerrito Relay For Life very briefly Relay for Life is the

0:11:10signature fundraising event for the American Cancer Society and it happens in over 5100 cities and towns Across the Nation participants create teams of family friends and co-workers to fundraise throughout the year and then walk for 24 hours because cancer never sleeps and

0:11:28neither do we this event is not a race it's a team event where simply people take turns walking on the track or field there's laughing there's a lot of food plenty of water games and frivolity but the core of the 24 hours is to celebrate cancer survivors you're a

0:11:47Survivor the moment you hear those horrible words remember and honor those we have lost the most moving ceremony of the weekend is where we Light luminaria bags to remind us how many people cancer affects and then we pledge to fight back where we come together one last time for the

0:12:03weekend and let cancer know that is not going to win the war I worked for the city of Walnut Creek prior to joining the American Cancer Society earlier this year I know firsthand what you have on your plates as council members and I know it's a lot today I'm simply

0:12:19letting you know three things the next El Cerrito Relay for Life event is scheduled for July 26th and 27th 2014 at Cerrito Vista Park I have flyers for you that I have already handed to um Cheryl Morris for you and or you can visit www.relayforlife.org El Cerrito CA

0:12:45in 2002 it was projected that approximately 145 000 Californians would be diagnosed with cancer in 2013. that's 16 people every hour every day for a year what you might know is that the American Cancer Society celebrated its 100th birthday in May until I started working here I thought

0:13:06cancer was a newer phenomenon in the past few decades I had no idea that cancer existed in the 1900s much less that only one out of 10 people survived this could not have been done or currently we are at two out of three people so we have significantly increased our the survival rate for Camp

0:13:27people's diagnosed with cancer this could not have been done without the final piece of the puzzle for more than 65 years research has been at the heart of the American Cancer society's mission in October three scientists received the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine

0:13:43which you actually just met one of them here today his one of his co-partners and I know hurrying up um in 1982 while at Stanford University Dr James Rothman actually had received a five-year American Cancer Society research Grant to study the biochemistry of the Golgi apparatus part of what is I

0:14:08believe is being used right now don't ask me what all of it means exactly but what this shows is that the American Cancer Society continues to demonstrate a remarkable remarkable ability to both identify and support gifted scientific investigators early in their careers the success of the

0:14:26society's research program is surely exemplified by the fact that Dr Rothman is now the 47th Nobel Prize winner or our organization has supported so I stand before you today asking you to leave behind all the hype of Black Friday and Cyber Monday to embrace giving Tuesday one in three people may

0:14:45be robbed of future birthdays because of a cancer diagnosis and I ask you whose birthday will you save thank you for your time and I wish you well in your new rotation thank you next speaker please Kim Coles that was the first Speaker excuse me Kendra Zion hello my name is Kendra Zion I actually

0:15:15live in Point Richmond but I work across the street at Playland not at the beach as the operations manager I've been there for over four years and three years ago we partnered up with the American Cancer Society so I'm here to talk about El Cerritos action in Relay

0:15:34for Life and to try and get everyone more involved um El Cerrito has shown a strong understanding for what is important not only civic pride but also the safety of um the people of El Cerrito three years ago you guys did a proclamation working with Pro fall prevention making sure the

0:16:00El Cerrito sidewalks are safe you're now honoring one of your own Nobel Peace Prize winners you have three years trusted the El Cerrito um City to let their sheriffs um firefighters and police officers attend our Relay for Life and letting them raise over three thousand dollars in the

0:16:27last three years as a team themselves called snuff out and arrest cancer ask you to step up and do more we would love to see you guys do a proclamation just like you did tonight honoring Relay for Life making it making it more known in our community our Relay for Life is

0:16:45different than anyone else's ours truly is embracing all that El Cerrito has to offer in making it a community environment we would love to partnership with you providing a team not only for city council members but also for the entire city hall and city employees we'd

0:17:06also like additional help and marketing and Painting the Town purple we would love to go out and put up additional signs and information in the community especially the week or so before relay letting people know about all we have to offer thank you so much for everything

0:17:23you do to support the American Cancer Society Relay for Life and your amazing citizens of El Cerrito thank you our our next speaker is Patricia Durham good evening mrum to um our mayor and this beautiful city council good evening my name is Patricia Durham for those who

0:18:03don't know my name and I am your chair for the city-wide Martin Luther King celebration here in the city and I am here to just remind you that on January 20th 2014 we will be celebrating our 25th year in this city we will be celebrating our silver anniversary and

0:18:36to the entire city council thank you for your leadership and thank you for being a part of this event for 25 years on behalf of the human relations commission and the MLK committee we have a gift for you and I too have a t-shirt no and we are very very proud to say that

0:19:12we have a t-shirt for each and every one of you so again mark your calendars because it's going to be a special year because as you know we are in the final stages of our planning for 2014. so give us a call tell your friends and please be part of this event thank you thank

0:19:36you Judd Goodman hi um I recently I recently moved to El Cerrito with my wife we just moved in September and I have to tell you I've really enjoyed the neighborhood we look forward to living here and raising our family in the city for years to come everything's been great

0:20:09our neighbors are particularly great who are also here um walkability is great access to hiking trails and green space is all all great one thing that hasn't been so great and that's been the El Cerrito High School football stadium Construction we found out about the construction just

0:20:31by one of our neighbors overhearing two District workers discuss it and that was that was how we found out that this project was actually going to happen so that occurred I believe in early October and so right after that the neighbors on Rockaway Avenue and Colusa

0:20:50mobilized to try to make sure that the that the district would address our health and safety concerns during during construction you can imagine the surprise I had I have a son on the way our first son and uh we'll be trying to soothe him with you know noise and other other issues in

0:21:11the right behind our backyard so um I'm here just to just to let you know what's going on and that um there's been a few efforts um multiple meetings and a couple of official letters to try to get clear responses from the school district on what will be the impacts of the actual

0:21:35construction so um I have I have to say I've been a bit disappointed in that the response has been slow going and we recently did receive a letter back but it refers to bid documents without clearly specifying uh you know the answers to all of our questions so I just want to let you know

0:21:57that we're here and this is going on and uh I'm looking forward to hearing more about what what the city may do about it in order for in order to understand the impacts to its citizens for future School District projects as well great thank you is your contact information on your speaker card

0:22:20um I believe so great thank you uh the final speaker at this time is Sherry drobner hi good evening city council and mayor um I was here probably about a month ago and speaking along the same lines as Judd Goodman talking about the High School stadium project and we have been trying to communicate

0:22:56with the school district and I wouldn't say it's been very successful or I might say it's just been very frustrating and I understand and speaking with the assistant city managers at the city council doesn't actually have jurisdiction or much influence with the

0:23:13school district but I was thinking about the fact that we're neighbors so we live you know bordering our school district as our neighbor and there's so many houses that do in El Cerrito and it's not just El Cerrito High School it's so many schools in El Cerrito and I'm just

0:23:30wondering how we might in the future think about how we can develop better Communications um after so many um attempts I received an email back from Mr Bill Faye today saying to the 12 concerns that we outlined uh an email that basically said to each concern they're in the documents at the

0:23:54facilities operations office you can pick them up so I said okay and I went down to pick them up and I was told oh no there's been a miscommunication you can stay here and read them if you'd like and I asked if well are they tabbed remarked you know because there's

0:24:11thousands of papers and I was told no and I so I I feel I don't know if we're really getting um a serious or I wouldn't say even a respectful response from the district about what I think are serious and reasonable concerns and so I just want to think you know I just want to

0:24:33put this out to the city when we think about this how we can relate differently to the school district or think about ways that we can maybe have more of an impact and and for the city and for the city our Representatives representatives to be maybe stronger Advocates

0:24:51um for Neighbors because we really you know we we don't have you know high-powered attorneys behind us um we just have our voices that we can put together but um we really do need support thank you thank you any any more speakers no thank you for your comments this evening

0:25:12with that we'll move on to item 4B which is the El Cerrito Police Department Explorer Program and uh I see several people okay they're like oh you're okay good evening Mr Mayor members of the council City staff and members of the public I'm Lieutenant Robert de la

0:25:35campaign Police Department I'm our coordinator of volunteer services and that includes our Explorer Program which is what we're going to talk about tonight just for clarification that is different from our Cadet program sometimes the words are used interchangeably but our

0:25:49Cadet program is for persons that are 18 years and older who are currently enrolled in college the Explorer Program is different this program is generally persons that are in high school or just recently out of it is a program that's open to men and women between the ages of 14 and 21.

0:26:11and it's really for them to learn about public service law enforcement specifically we hope that they go forward to become public servants and law enforcement employees in their Futures and if at least become responsible citizens the organization is wide reaching throughout the country

0:26:30there are agencies of every type that have Explorer posts be they local Federal even military police organizations and it is endorsed by the International Association of Chief employees this department has had the program on and off it began in the early 80s I was phased out in the late 80s

0:26:52nobody's really clear why exactly we brought it back in 2003 and I think this is the first time that's actually been presented to the council into the city to kind of explain what the program is about of note is that it is the way a lot of us started in this job yours truly and

0:27:10some of the other officers behind me were explorers in our younger days what what these persons actually do at the department is they have a training meeting every other week it is run by our explore advisors who are designated police officers most of whom are in the room

0:27:29and they and I get together and decide what we will teach them on every given training session they have a one week Academy every year and we do that in June when school's out as the parent of teenagers I like to think that it kind of helps the parents as well because it is a a week where

0:27:46they're quite occupied and learning productive things during their summer vacations we try to make it as realistic as possible within reason taking into account their abilities and their ages but we are intending to prepare them for a future in a police academy

0:28:01so upon completion thereof they can go on ride-alongs and police cars and probably the most common place that they are seen by the public is at public Outreach programs that we run they're always there with us at National Night Out they helped out a lot with the citizens

0:28:16Police Academy and Tri-City safety day they are always there some of the other things they do we call them administrative tasks other duties as assigned at the police department whenever you see our McGruff suits out in the public these are the persons that are inside that suit

0:28:33they help out a lot they do role playing for us we do police training they'll essentially be the bad guy for us and that is a big help sometimes they do color guard at events such as the officer of the air which many of us have been at and you'll see them coming in with the flag posting the

0:28:49colors as they say they also help us with scenario training it's kind of similar to the role playing and when we do sobriety checkpoints they're always there they'll help us set up help us just do a lot of things that the police officers don't necessarily have to do they can focus on screening

0:29:07for DUIs and the Explorers help out with like everything else these are some photographs from our Academy this year in June one of the classes that they attended was the driving simulator this is actually a California post-approved course every else real police officer and really

0:29:23every police officer in this county has gone through the class that they're at right in that photo they're driving simulators and we put them there for one day they did not drive cars during the academy this is as close as they got but this lets them do uh Pursuit driving and

0:29:38things that they're not quite ready for in the regular car but they enjoyed it I think we had them doing defensive tactics training in our training room across the street is their graduation photo it's a small group but that's fine it's uh it's really good for teaching them

0:29:57the way that El Cerrito does business gets them used to the department and like I said hopefully someday then we work here one of the things that they've gotten involved in this past year has been competitions explore programs around this the country and particularly

0:30:11Northern California like to have competitions they're generally set up regionally and explore organizations from different police departments go and they do competitions in scenarios such as car stops such as building searches and they'll be graded by advisors from whatever department is

0:30:29hosting it so like everything else it costs money and this year they've done a couple of tip and explore events to raise funds to pay for those trips this year they did two competitions one was in Brentwood and the other one was in Paso Robles this photograph is from

0:30:45Paso Robles at Paso Robles they actually brought home four trophies two of them were earned by the Explorers they got fourth place in the written test which is like simulating the written test one would take to become a police officer and they came in fourth for vehicle

0:31:03searches now that is out of 53 Explorer posts it's a fourth place is quite respectable and especially because we just got into this competition thing this year other departments do them have been doing them for years so they did pretty good the other two were earned by

0:31:19our advisors the advisors were it was optional but they opted to participate in a Physical Agility Test so one of our advisors who's not here tonight earned one for the third place agility and the other for females the other was fourth place for males and the officers here with us

0:31:36tonight they'll be doing another competition in Sacramento in May of 14.

0:31:41foreign is based on their future they do also provide a lot of service to the city and to the department this year as of two days ago they were up to 20 363 and a half hours of volunteer time in 2013.

0:32:02now a lot of that is their own training time but even minus that it's well over 1 000 hours of direct service to the community so those would be the public events that we talked about you also see on ride alongs so they're out there quite often particularly on the weekends

0:32:19I would like to introduce them to you briefly tonight and also acknowledge that their families of most of them were able to come tonight and show us for it as well in the front row here we have Explorer Sonic on with Maya garriga Sabine Garrett Krebs behind them we have three

0:32:38of their advisors we have Corporal JT warlick officer Matt Wong and officer Bailey thepk song so I think yeah [Applause] so I'm happy to answer questions you may have about the program if you have any I I uh I want to personally thank you because I've seen you at some of the events one that I

0:33:17remember most notably was the medical prescription drop-off I think you guys were there at that event and on behalf of Ms Durham who's I still see is still here I want to certainly extend a invitation to you to participate in the Martin Luther King Day parade which is

0:33:35coming up in January so I just want to make sure that that's something that you might have on your calendar it'll be there we do have 10 explorers right now some of the others weren't able to make it because they are taking calculus exams and things of that sort this week but we

0:33:51will have an Explorer presence of that event fantastic any other questions councilmember I don't have a question but I want to thank all of the participants in the program and also also um thank you those who are the I forgot the word the um advisors yes and um for the support

0:34:16from the leadership of our department thank you I think you're probably the two people that I would most thank are right here in front of us because I think this really shows a commitment to the Future to the future of our town and to those who live in our town and those

0:34:34who um go to school in our town I don't know of the students who are participating in this program what you are but um whatever you are you're an asset to the community and um I think it's really uh commendable that you've spent all this time and effort and energy when you could easily

0:34:54be out doing something you know watching TV if nothing else but you've chosen a much better way to go and I think that you'll find that in the long run you will benefit from it and I and I do hope that when some of you are at the age where you're considering what kind of a

0:35:12a job you want to have for the future that you will look at law enforcement and look back to this experience with a positive light and say yes this is for me and um so thank you for your participant and thanks to the department for supporting it you're welcome thank Cube

0:35:31councilmember benstein thank you not so fast um thank you so much for the presentation just one question for you as the Explorers are leaving the program is there any sort of an exit process where uh they get a chance to talk about the things that they really enjoyed

0:35:45about the program or what their takeaways were or maybe what they're going to take on what things they've learned that they're going to take on to the next next experiences that may or may not bring them back to law enforcement like we hope that they might come back to

0:35:59we don't do a formal you know exit interview like you would for a regular employee but we certainly are encouraging them to go into public service now whether that means being a police officer or not there are plenty of other jobs in the public service that are just

0:36:11as important so we definitely encourage them to be on that track I call the future of public service right here thank you future city council people maybe at this time I would actually encourage the the trainees and the explorers to come forward and and take a picture with the

0:36:30chief and and Officer De La Campa here in front of the podium if you would please okay yes questions please look at the camera [Laughter] I don't know thank you thank you [Applause] that concludes item four oh please feel free [Laughter] that concludes item four we'll move on

0:37:56to item five it's adoption of the consent calendar we have four items on the consent calendar minutes for approval ordinance amending commission rules and repealing the economic development board a Federal Emergency Management grant for the purchase of automatic cardiac compression devices

0:38:14which includes a almost sixty five thousand dollar Grant and our first quarter investment report a move adoption of items 5A through D second all those are in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstaining I I heard you say hi okay uh um that concludes item five we'll move

0:38:37on to item seven at this time which is the city council reorganization um well I will be I will be calling for the red reorganization of the city council um which uh is where we vacate our offices of uh mayor and mayor Pro tem and then the council will elect new

0:39:04mayor and a new mayor Pro tem um however uh this is the time for me as mayor to highlight our accomplishments of the last year I emphasize it was our accomplishments as a council a city and as a community it takes a team to be a successful uh City community and I want to thank that

0:39:31team I thank the residents of El Cerrito who set the direction for the city through measures past ordinances you demand and issues you support like the Swim Center recycling center streets measure and this year's single-use plastic bag ban I think the volunteers of many of the

0:39:53many elsewhere organizations the Garden Club the Historical Society Friends of the creek Friends of the theater Friends of the library the in the various uh volunteers the many volunteers that serve on our boards commissions and committees all of you shape how other cities see us

0:40:12see El Cerrito so without you volunteers it's we wouldn't have our reputation I think the men and women who make this city run every day and provide the desired and required services Public Works Recycling and education Resource Centers swim centers community centers senior center after school care

0:40:36Fire Department police department planning Building Services and finances I ask those of you that are here please tell your fellow workers how much we the residents of El Cerrito appreciate you and your hard work without you your commitment it is not possible to Be an Effective

0:41:00and productive city council or mayor I thank the city clerk show Morse the assistant city manager Karen Pincus the City attorney Scott Woodruff and the city manager Scott Hannan as a council member and more so as a mayor you are the primary staff we interact with

0:41:23your knowledge experience and professionalism make it very easy to be the mayor and I thank my fellow council members your civility trust and commitment to serve has made it a privilege to represent you and the city of El Cerrito around the county and Beyond so here's what we as a team have

0:41:48accomplished and I wouldn't be an engineer if I didn't use lots of numbers so please bear with me two Redevelopment agency related lawsuits one successfully concluded that preserved 1.7 million dollars of our general fund and one recently filed in October to protect two million dollars

0:42:09of our general fund five significant right-of-way projects over two and a half million dollars worth that made it safer on our streets in a lonely Greenway for bicycles and pedestrians especially our students six Wards both National and Regional and I had to change this because we got

0:42:31another Grant tonight eight grants totaling four million four hundred and twenty three thousand dollars four million four hundred and twenty three thousand dollars including ninety percent funding for a new fire truck 18 proclamations including Centennial recognitions of the stage sanitary

0:42:55services and the El Cerrito library and tonight's Nobel Prize winner recognition um you get a real sense of a community and what they value from proclamations so I'm going to Rattle off a few that caught my eye Earth hour Earth Day uh volunteer day Bike To Work Day

0:43:18affordable housing week fall prevention Awareness Week Asian American and Pacific Islander month LGBT pride month and arts and humanities month finally 24 meetings were were conducted to do the city's business and I'm going to run through our the bulk of our businesses rather

0:43:44boring actually we interview volunteers we set Integrated Waste Management fees we file our recognized obligation payment schedules we approve the Landscape and Lighting District reports the national pollution discharge and elimination system report measure J annual reports

0:44:03the general plan annual reports measure a swim center tax or fees fiscal year appropriation limit the fire hazard abatement tax anticipation notes and most notably our annual budget those are the routine annual things that makes the city run this year I'm proud of the some of the

0:44:27other things that we did we finalized the city's first strategic plan we adopted our first climate action plan we rejuvenated the San Pablo Avenue specific plan we initiated the urban Greening plan we worked with trust for public land to acquire Seven Acres of Hillside open

0:44:51space we entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with build Inc for the over the three acres at Del Norte BART we started off the grid on Wednesday nights we banned single-use plastic bags and styrofoam Food Ware containers that starts January 1.

0:45:12we updated our policies on board commissions and committees and as I reported earlier we concluded a long overdue evaluation of the city manager that's what we've done as a team now what I did as a mayor that I can actually take credit for is I presided over 23 of the 24 meetings I

0:45:33cut a few ribbons in the community I made uh I made a few remarks or short remarks at various events and attended a number of meetings and ate many meals away from home it was a privilege a real privilege to represent such a progressive community and the exceptionally

0:45:59the exceptional staff of El Cerrito I could not have been mayor and done any of this without the support of the team the residents the volunteers City staff City management and city council and the support of my family especially my wife Harry these flowers these flowers are just a token of my

0:46:35sincere appreciation for your support thank you [Applause] thank you mayor Pro Town according to the script that our very efficient clerk has given us it's your turn yes it is and uh there you didn't leave very much for me to say except for one thing you didn't adequately say what a

0:47:14really good job you did and uh so I get to do that and first of all I want to say that I think we all really enjoyed having you as our leader I think we were a very effective group as you did say together uh and it's that team and and working together and is how

0:47:34I think we really got things done you know I mean things have not been great in terms of the environment that we have to work in you know I don't mean the city environment I mean the you know the financial pressures from the outside have been very difficult and

0:47:51um so but working together as a team under your leadership we've really as you said done a huge amount and I see it actually as a foundation not only for what got accomplished this year but in fact what we'll be able to accomplish in the future so it's the very you know

0:48:09it's those building blocks that make the other steps possible and um so in in the you know I see us in the future being able to do those further steps because under your leadership we did do the things that you mentioned especially things like the Strategic plan that I

0:48:26think was really important and enabled us to have a forum for defining who we are and who we want to be and finding out that in fact we had an awful lot in common and we could work out what we wanted to be and um so I think I will almost just leave it at that because it really you know

0:48:47having said that it's just it's just really a true statement and um I witnessed you personally going to many many things you did a you were very very hard worker very thorough worker and we are all the better for it and so with that it gives me a great honor to give you your

0:49:10well-deserved plaque and um so we'll take a moment here thank you very much no thank you and I look forward to serving with you in the as we continue on our journey and it's been great and maybe I don't know if somebody else wants to say something um sure I'd like to say something okay

0:49:47um I think one of the things that Greg's so good at is detail now you already said how many um math items you put down there but what you really don't know is that mayor Lyman found 4 321 either gram grammar Ayers spelling mistakes in our agenda bills now that's not anything to say about the

0:50:09city staff it's the rest of us don't have the Acuity that he has and that's just Greg being Greg um but not only do we achieve all these things but I think one of the things that was sort of a signature for you is that we actually have a new forum for the city manager evaluation I mean there

0:50:27was a lot of background information the whole commission um rewrite that was done there were a lot of things that actually had a little more of your imprint on it that uh was specifically part of what you and and also Janet did and I think that's pretty admirable and I think all of our

0:50:47meetings were very well run and you have a real knack for summation particularly when we have a presentation or any kind of speaker that comes from the outside you always did a really good job with that and I just want to thank you personally welcome thank you um a lot a lot of what I would say it's

0:51:08already been said but I want to just say that Greg you are remarkably sane individual extremely balanced patient respectful and gracious and really set a tone for the city not just that from this Podium but in all your interactions with the public and with all the regional bodies

0:51:27that you sat on you really represented Us in an exemplary fashion and you're just a really great guy and I really enjoyed serving with you as our leader for the past year and just to put a really fine point on it I've enjoyed how informed you've kept us when you do represent us on these

0:51:44bodies I feel like when you come back you give such a thorough report that we understand why you came to the decision you came to or why you're making the recommendation that you're recommending and we can all get behind that really easily so I've appreciated feeling as

0:51:56though I don't don't have to go to those meetings but you go to them and then give me a quick Cliff Notes version I also noted with my husband that we've had more closed sessions these last couple months than we've had in a long time and I just keep saying Scott Greg

0:52:09has this list that he's trying to check off before this reorganization happened and I feel like we did it we did all of these um sort of housekeeping things that we should be doing on a more periodic basis but it takes somebody like Greg to put it on the list and say we're going to do

0:52:25this this year so we completed our last closed session today just in time for you to get your gavel the black with the the mayor's gavel on it so congratulations on that and thank you for all your hard work Madam Clerk at this time we'll declare the office of Mayor and mayor Pro tem

0:52:42vacant and call for the nominations for office of Mayor it is my honor to nominate council member or mayor Pro tem Janet Abelson to be our next mayor are there any further nominations if there are no further nominations I move that we close the nominations second

0:53:05a favor great uh in closing nominations please say so hi hi all those in favor of selecting mayor Pro tem Abelson as mayor hi hi vote is unanimous thank you the new mayors [Applause] so this is so I start now okay so um the next item the next item on the agenda uh is the selection of the mayor

0:53:41Pro Tem are there nominations I nominate uh council member benicini are there any other nominations is there a motion to close nominations second okay all in favor of closing nominations please say aye aye that's unanimous um with that all those in favor of council member benicini being mayor Pro

0:54:08tem say I I that's unanimous congratulations thank you foreign [Applause] having done all of that and be just becoming the mayor I would like to thank everyone for uh all that they've done and talked just for a moment about what I see happening in the upcoming year and

0:54:44as I said earlier I think that what I see happening in the upcoming year is building on the steps that were taken in the last year especially in the last year and um building our future for for the for the Times thereafter we have a number of planning processes underway right now uh

0:55:05that I'm very excited about and they're very positive steps um as were mentioned before and what I see happening in the next year is bringing those to a uh finish in as many cases as possible and then beginning to implement them would be that this next step after that and I think when I think

0:55:28about El Cerrito just sort of visually and think about what does that really mean the biggest thing that I see that that really means is a new face on San Pablo Avenue where we now see buildings like next door which are look very decayed we will see vibrant new projects

0:55:49um where we see little vacant storefronts I see that they will be occupied by by vibrant little businesses and I see us all working together to make this a even more exciting Community than I actually think it already is because I think we already have an enormous amount to offer

0:56:10um not just our new Nobel Laureate our Nobel Prize winner excuse me and um although we do have that too and uh so I I think that this is going to be really a year of building although I know also that this is not going to be a year of great Economic Times because we're still

0:56:30not really out of the woods as we understand but it will happen and um then um one of the things though that Greg didn't mention one of the few things that I'm glad I got to mention be the one to mention is I really kind of measure how well we are doing not by how

0:56:52well we agree with each other but by how well we disagree with each other and I think Greg did a very good job of handling disagreement and I look forward to in the future continuing to work with this Council this audience this community to to be able to say no I don't agree

0:57:14with you and it's okay and then we take a vote up here and then we move on and everything is okay and to me that really is a sign that things are working well it's just like to me that's what free speech is all about it's not about the person who agrees with you it's about

0:57:32how do you treat the person who doesn't agree with you the person who has an unpopular position yeah if you treat them well and let them say what they have to say and respect it then you can move forward in a positive way and um and go forward and I see that us

0:57:53doing that very much with this team that we have assembled right now up here and I want to thank all of you for being part of the team and for making my experience as part of this team so enjoyable um with that um I will just ask if there's anyone else who wants to say anything about

0:58:17their thoughts about the new year I'm looking forward to it okay this one uh speakers oh we have speakers on this item okay I don't see that okay we have speakers on this item uh supervisor Julia I figured you were wait sitting out there for a reason I wanted to enjoy

0:58:43this moment uh good evening I'm John joy and I'm honored and proud to represent El Cerrito on the County Board of Supervisors and I just wanted to come to acknowledge both the leadership of outgoing mayor uh Greg Lyman and of course the incoming mayor um Janet Abelson

0:58:59um and I just want to just briefly say all of you are a great example of good governance when people ask me about what's the city council that you hold up in terms of the process and and how they deliberate and just how they act I always say El Cerrito and I'm proud to

0:59:13say that I'll say that anywhere because I really do think this is a great example of good governance and and I was reflecting last week what marked the 50th anniversary of the Untamed untimely assassination of President Kennedy and it made me think that so many people in

0:59:26my generation I'm 55 I'm an old guy and older you know we're inspired by um to public service or Civic involvement by by a lot of the things he said and so in all of you I think really there's that same kind of inspiration you're also role models for folks in your community

0:59:41and I need to say about Greg I've had chance to serve with him in the morning at these West County Mayors and supervised Association meetings at 7 30 and Greg you went to a lot more of them than I did I had conflicts on some of those Thursdays but one of the things

0:59:56that was so great that Greg did is that he kept track of the various appointments at the mayor's conference the Contra Costa mayor's conference made to all these important Regional bodies like the air District or a bag or Metropolitan Transportation Commission and that was so important because when

1:00:13you look at it so many of those appointments come from city council members in central Contra Costa County and he advocated for our mayor's conference out here taking a more active role in getting support countywide to make sure that there were more council members from West County cities on these

1:00:32very important Regional boards and he kept track he did a chart and a matrix I know he's going to continue to do that and because he understood the importance of our voice as a region as this part of the county on all these important Regional bodies and Greg I really

1:00:47appreciate that and also he was the most usually thoughtful prepared member of the solid waste jpa he represents you very well maybe because he's an engineer and understands all these you know all the solid waste issues but I can tell you in both those venues and I'm sure in

1:01:05others he's represented the city very well and when I say the city I mean not just you but the residents and and then of course with Jan and I'm not sure how many times now you've been mayor Janet but um this is the fourth fourth okay fourth and Counting and um is and and your

1:01:20leadership on also these Regional bodies we had a chance to work together many years ago on the Renew on measure J and you're going to get a chance I'm not on the Transportation Authority your chair but you're gonna I mean you're gonna get a chance to really help craft I know

1:01:34um the new sales tax measure and you've always been such a fierce advocate for public transit you know for the projects that really make sense here in El Cerrito and in our part of the County so I mean our city and our residents out here all the cities are really real well

1:01:48represented by your leadership on Transportation issues and that's going to be really great uh to have and I just want to say I value you know the County's relationship with the city of El Cerrito I think we've got so many good Partnerships hope maybe we'll have

1:02:01even a stronger Partnership if we can figure out how to rebuild the library right there's the support to try to figure that out you know whether it's been Fire EMS or other issues there's been great Partnerships and so I just wanted to acknowledge that I think as

1:02:14you said Greg this is all a team effort none of us do this alone we all do this working with each other and so and I value all of you know my relationship working with all of you and I would be neglecting something if I didn't acknowledge the great work of your staff

1:02:27I mean I deal a lot with your staff as well I know County staff do as well you know from your city manager your mayor your city manager your fire chief your police chief your city clerk all the support staff and the city manager all your department heads all really

1:02:42wonderful and you really do welcome the involvement of City commissions almost more than any other city that I've seen you make it you you really welcome them and you welcome their involvement you listen to them it was a great network of commissions here at the city so I just

1:02:56wanted to come and acknowledge all of that and it's a pleasure representing the city the community and all of you so thanks thank you what more speakers we have two more speakers mayor um Al Miller good evening new mayor old mayor thank you I just wanted to be sure as a

1:03:24resident uh that you hear something that you probably wouldn't say yourself especially here or the last year or so it was not unusual to pick up the West County Times in the morning and read some article about some City Council Members or city council itself in West County that is

1:03:45being dinged because they did this they're arguing they're fighting uh they're somewhat ethically challenged in certain things a city manager double dealing with contracts to a company that he says he doesn't own but everybody else said he did on and find out that

1:04:04when you read articles like that it's not El Cerrito they're talking about the only articles we've seen in the paper recently the at least that I have have been in the various accomplishments of the things that our staff is doing and you're doing with the staff so I want to

1:04:22thank you for making reading the West County Times even though it might not be the best paper in the world a pleasurable experience because it only says good things about our city thank you [Applause] and the final speaker slip is letras Alford foreign good evening mayor and city council my

1:04:58name is latresa Alford and I'm the senior representative for Congressman George Miller I have the honor this evening to read remarks from him he's currently in Washington DC and he wanted to um send his congratulations so to the city of El Cerrito Council dear mayor and council members I am

1:05:22pleased to congratulate each of you on the reorganization of your Council I also join with you as you recognize Dr Randy shuckman for his 2013 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine I would like to take this opportunity to commend mayor former mayor Greg Lyman as his term as

1:05:48mayor concludes Greg has been a forward-thinking leader in El Cerrito which I am again pleased to represent among his many successes Greg is a strong advocate for sustainable energy throughout the region exemplified by his work with the East Bay Green corridor I also would like to congratulate

1:06:11mayor Janet Abelson as she undertakes the position of a mayor Janet I look forward to continue working with you on the many issues that are important to the residents of El Cerrito and West County again congratulations to the entire Council on the occasion of your

1:06:31reorganization there are many important issues facing our community and I look forward to working with each of you to address them please do not hesitate to contact me or my staff if we can be of assistance to you sincerely George Miller member of Congress 11th congressional district

1:06:50thank you thank you thank you to everyone for your really kind comments and I hope to live up to them or along with Rebecca uh who I'm really looking forward to working with as a as as a team we're me also together again yes I and before we uh adjourn I would like

1:07:22to introduce you to some special people in my life who you don't often see here and I'll start out with my husband Howard Abelson thank you I have five children but only one of them is here and my it's my son Joel however Joel brought his in his in-laws who I consider about one thousand

1:07:50percent a part of my family now and that would be Chris and Kathy Perez who are here uh visiting for the holidays from San Diego and uh enabled me to have the world's most wonderful daughter-in-law thank you very much and um I and then I have a slight confession here my glasses are being

1:08:13retooled because they didn't work right so I can't actually see everyone who's out there so if if I know you've I've known you for 50 years and I'm not mentioning you it's because I didn't know you're there so um so I do apologize but anyway some of the people I think are there

1:08:33that aren't usually here Jan ducart right some some friends I've known from um preschool days at namura preschool uh Rick and Pat flyer uh Rick is a retired Contra Costa judge and we have been doing Hanukkah parties together for approaching 30 years and uh Wendy Fitch

1:09:07who makes a great cake to bring to one of those parties and um Kimi Honda Kimmy thank you for coming Gabe Quinto I don't know if he could stay he he had to leave okay and Paloma Pavel right there Pat Durham is she still here yes hi Pat and Joan Carpenter who's a very dear

1:09:39friend thank you for coming Joan [Applause] [Music] um Gina agastinelli I see and and and well are you both you are there okay and uh someone you might not know it as a person that I've known for a very long time but his name is Todd Groves thank you I've known him since his daughter who's

1:10:05now in college second daughter was a baby in arms so and he lived in Berkeley and then he saw the light and moved to El Cerrito and uh and we were fellow parents at Harding Elementary School but I would like to thank you all for coming in and I uh hope that you'll work

1:10:31with me and with the rest of the council members and City staff to make this a very good year for El Cerrito and together I think we can do it and what I would like to do now is to start by gathering out in the um outer area and there's there are some refreshments and

1:10:51I hope that you will stay and join us for some of those refreshments and um and get a chance to talk to each other and thank you for coming adjourned [Applause] [Music]