City Council Meeting January 21, 2014

0:04:00I guess we're all ready to start um thank you all for coming tonight uh this is the El Cerrito city council and we will convene the meeting with a pledge of allegiance to the flag or observation of a moment of silence and tonight we're going to be led by council member Jan

0:04:21Bridges if you would please join us the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all uh the next item on the agenda is Council and staff communication are there any Communications

0:04:57two actually to make an announcement that those of you who um may or may not know are council members seconds I don't know exactly the day within the past 10 to 14 days and mom and baby are healthy am I not on there's a little switch at the bottom should I repeat that

0:05:25sorry um council member Rebecca vanessini isn't here tonight because she delivered her twins within the past 10 to 14 days and both twin boys and Mom are doing well and I also wanted to give some very due recognition to our city clerk Sheryl Morris who actually has been competing

0:05:46and very active in the California City Clerks Association and she's been very busy mentoring you know this new Municipal Court clerks in the Bay Area for her work and also had a lot of work done on an Athenian dialogue committee and she completed recently her 10th

0:06:03dialogue and is going to be installed as an amphine leadership Society fellow and The International Institute of Municipal clerks we appreciate you every day but now you have some formal recognition too thank you thank you okay um are there any other Communications

0:06:24yes certainly um I want to thank um our human Relations Committee uh for hosting the Martin Luther King Parade yesterday uh our 25th anniversary was yesterday and all the council members present tonight walked in in the parade and the mayor gave great remarks at the

0:06:46event um and I also would like to this for this coming Saturday let everyone know that uh the the Ohlone Greenway is reopening uh Bart has finished their retrofit of the superstructure that supports the BART tracks and this Saturday they're celebrating the reopening of the The

0:07:05Greenway between 10 a.m and 3 P.M um you can go to the BART website to get more information and the place where they'll have at least a booth of some sort is at Fairmont Avenue uh and the intersection of Fairmont Avenue and the Ohlone Greenway okay thank you um

0:07:28with that we will move on to the uh is this a staff announcement about the pavement okay would you like to make that stud or good evening I bet you'd like to make it this is such a wonderful thing yes I would thanks my name is Yvette Ortiz and I run Public Works director and city engineer and

0:07:50tonight I'd like to announce I'm pleased to announce that last month the city received the 2012 most improved Rhodes award from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission the road recognized the city for having the greatest Improvement in road conditions of any jurisdiction in the Bay area for

0:08:08a three-year period representing 2010 through 2012.

0:08:12as staff has previously communicated the city of El Cerrito was able to transform from a city with the worst pavement conditions in the Bay Area in 2006 to one of the top three in the Bay Area in 2012 and NTC is recognizing this accomplishment um also just this you know the

0:08:34significant strides we've made in roadway Improvement have been the result of Voters passing measure a in 2008 measure a being the street improvements measure which included a three-year accelerated implementation schedule so I'd like to present this award to you

0:08:50mayor Abelson if I can come up and present it to you this is quite an honor um and it represents a lot of hard work that was was done by City staff so I would like to thank all of the staff that were involved in implementing this and I would like to thank the voters for

0:09:20sponsoring this by passing measure a this is really great and I hope you enjoy the roads as we continue to experience the result of this throughout our city something to be very very proud of thank you okay um let's see are there any other staff announcements okay with that we'll move on to oral

0:09:52Communications from the public for items not on the agenda we have uh Cordell hinder honorable mayor city council member my name is Cordell Handler and I'm a resident of Richmond they ought to pick more fair-minded people to be police officers because the job's too important to have any kind of

0:10:17racist white person walking around with a gun and a license to Kill I've had it I've had a tremendous inexperience uh with the police department I was harassed I was I was on down on Schmidt Lane walking around during my my my morning routine and all of a sudden a police officer stopped me

0:10:37uh and accusing me of Injustice and I think that's very unacceptable I have I have never been fully embarrassed I have been living in Richmond 26 years and I have never in my life been been disgrace I'm just a normal person any just like every one of you I have been through extreme measure so I'm

0:11:05thinking what what will it take for the police to realize that we're not I'm not I'm not only a victim here I'm also a taxpayer I feel for my sake that I should not have to go through what all people would go through uh being stopped by the police we need the police are supposed to be

0:11:25there for the um they're helping our community no because I have because I have talked with some of the businesses and they're saying every time every time they call them the police don't show up to me that's unacceptable we need the police need to realize that uh that the

0:11:43businesses need to to care I'll be happy to answer any questions you have coming to me thank you thank you our next speaker is Tom panis yeah foreign members of the council and City staff my name is Tom canis and I live at [address removed] in El Cerrito I'm pleased to report that the Chiang

0:12:19Mai Heritage day here at City Hall on December 18th was a wonderful success people came through the shoddy room all day and we had an entertaining and enlightening reception downstairs in the evening one of the highlights was a former Chiang Mai boy reciting the Chiang Mai

0:12:33Alpha by heart Chris Treadway caught that on video and was posted on his West County blog I'd like to thank the city very much for helping to make this event possible and in particular Suzanne erla who did a splendid job helping to organize the event some of you are able to stop by and some

0:12:51not I don't know that any of you happen to pick up a packet of selected pages from The Chiang Mai Chronicles so I provide each of you with a copy there have been two Planning Commission meetings since you last met in this room at the December 18th meeting the commission approved the Eden Housing

0:13:05senior project the mitigation for this project includes stunningly beautiful and insightful historic interpretation about our Japanese Nursery community this interpretation will be a destination in itself on San Pablo Avenue and significantly enhances the San Pablo

0:13:21Avenue Corridor in addition to Marx El Cerrito is a really first-class City and sets a standard we should use for all projects in the city whether on the Avenue or not it's our staff that made this happen I and the rest of the city owe them a deep depth of gratitude for

0:13:35their efforts on this I've distributed renderings of what is proposed just to give you a sense of scale on those the markers are about seven feet high and about 30 inches wide the planning commission's January 15th meeting was canceled I had planned to deliver comments to the commission at

0:13:50that meeting regarding Hardscape in our city and in particular the concept of no net increases in Hardscape in El Cerrito when that meeting was canceled I decided to send my comments to the Commissioners directly it was suggested the council might be interested in seeing my

0:14:04comments so they're included in the material I distributed to tonight thank you very much for your time this evening thank you I have no other speakers at this time okay um thank you with that we will move on to item number four which is presentations the first presentation is

0:14:23a very special one to the city and it's a proclamation in recognition and memory of Angela saridis Chris thank you good evening honorable mayor and council members I'm Chris Jones your Recreation director I'd like to thank you for the opportunity this evening to recognize and honor the life

0:14:43of Angelo cerritis and her service to this community Angela worked for the city of El Cerrito for over 16 years as our main water aerobics instructor at the El Cerrito Swim Center on Monday December 23rd 2013 Angela had a medical emergency after her noon class at the

0:15:02pool and unfortunately she passed away on the first of this year Angela had a larger-than-life personality and at age 73 continued to teach two to three water aerobics classes per day six days per week and she truly loved every minute of it she cared for and loved her co-workers

0:15:20and students and she would typically come in every day and say happy Monday give everyone a big kiss and a big hug many of us were lucky enough to be greeted by her in this manner once in the morning then again in the afternoon when she went home for lunch and then

0:15:36one more time when she came in for her evening class at the end of the day those people who haven't seen Angela in a while would always tell me that it made them feel so good when when they walked out into the pool deck and Angela having not seen them for a week two

0:15:53weeks a month for years would Lev up let out the shriek of joy that everybody could hear from around the swim center and jog over and give get that person a big hug Angela truly represented the heart and soul of the El Cerrito Swim Center and touched the lives of everyone that she

0:16:11came into contact with in a very special way and she will be missed many members of Angela's family are here this evening as well as her students and I'd like to thank her family for coming and for sharing Angela with us over the years at the request evangelist students

0:16:27after speaking with the family we will be collecting donations for the purchase of a memorial bench dedicated to Angela's memory will likely be located next to the water aerobics closet at the Swim Center so that our students can sit down and put on their cuffs and get their items

0:16:45together after all these years of not having a place to do that and donations can be either mailed or made at the El Cerrito Community Center thank you um [Applause] Angela was a very very special person and um I my family has had a very special relationship with Angela in fact so much

0:17:19so that the day that she had her incident at the pool my daughter who was visiting from out of state actually stopped by to see Angela and took her class it was it turned out to be her as I understand in her very last class that she taught and and that was because she wanted to see Angela

0:17:44and Angela is such a very caring and special person and really had a positive impact on many many lives and many families and um it's it's really sort of hard to believe that she you know that that won't continue on but I think um if Angela were part of this conversation and I think that we would

0:18:12like to think that she is that she would she would tell people to um you know move on continue on and she's smiling down upon us because she's a very special and caring person and um and I can certainly say that from firsthand experience um I'd kind of like to read the

0:18:36proclamation because a lot of work was put into the proclamation and it talks about um a number of events that occurred in Angela's life and she had a very good life she had a very loving family a very loving husband who has also been an integral part of our community and we're really going to

0:19:03miss her a lot so please join me as I tell you what is in that Proclamation whereas Angela Sarah does water aerobics instructor served the El Cerrito community and many others with love compassion and dedication and Upon Our passing is deserving of recommended recognition and whereas Angela was a

0:19:28native of Istanbul Turkey of a Greek ancestry she immigrated to the United States in 1964 and became a United States citizen in the early 1970s and where Angela was a 38-year resident of El Cerrito and is survived by her husband of 49 years Harry sarada's daughters Joyce Sarah Vacaville and Dina

0:19:55saridis of El Cerrito son Peter sarades and his wife Lisa of El Cerrito brother Apostle janitas and his wife after p and excuse me if I said that wrong of El Cerrito and her grandchildren Lucia and Andrew of all Angela's children all evangelist children worked at the El Cerrito Recreation

0:20:21Department as day camp counselors and whereas Angela was a member of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Ascension in Oakland loved to travel with her family and backpacked through Yosemite National Park for the first time less than four years ago and whereas Angela began

0:20:40taking water aerobics at the El Cerrito Swim Center in the mid 90s and before she learned how to swim became a certified water aerobics instructor for the city in 1997 where over the course of her career has shared her passion for water aerobics and positive disposition

0:21:02with thousand adults with thousands of adults and whereas Angela has consistently been a part of the El Cerrito and Greater Community providing outstanding water aerobics instruction guidance to patrons new to the activity and support to both men members of the public and staff and with

0:21:22her husband Harry played an important role in the campaign to rebuild her beloved El Cerrito Swim Center and whereas Angela served the residents of El Cerrito and surrounding communities and upon her passing concluded over 16 years of dedication to the water aerobics program in El Cerrito Swim

0:21:44Center and whereas Angela's family and the city of El Cerrito gratefully acknowledged the timely professional and skilled responses of the El Cerrito Swim Center lifeguards Stephen Dunkel and maximil Gonzalez and members of the El Cerrito fire department for their

0:22:06actions on December the 23rd 2013. now therefore the El Cerrito city council does hereby commend and recognize the many contributions and positive impact act on the community made by Angela sarides to the El Cerrito community and offers its condolences to Angela's family on behalf of the

0:22:30Grateful residents and patrons of the city of El Cerrito and with that we do want to thank the family for coming and let you know just how much we care and are privileged to have known Angela in our lives thank you and um Chris did did you have some certificates

0:22:59or do I have them thank you no um I'd like to introduce Bridget Cooney our aquatic supervisor who would also like to recognize two of our lifeguards at this time okay so on behalf of the city of El Cerrito and the aquatics Department staff I'd like to recognize two of our lifeguards

0:23:31who exhibited the qualities and love of level-headedness and quick thinking that we look for in our lifeguards uh during a time of emergency these two guards are shining examples of how we want the Swim Center to be represented in times of Crisis and these certificates of appreciation are for

0:23:49Stefan duckle and Max Gonzalez [Applause] thank you and if um Harriet if you wanted to come I would like to present you with this Proclamation of [Music] um [Laughter] foreign okay thank you and thank you for everyone for being here um I um I think we're ready now to move on

0:25:23to the next item on our agenda but I don't know if the family members want to leave at this point or if you want to stay but if we can just give people a chance who want to leave right now the opportunity foreign with that we will move on to item 4B on our agenda

0:26:44um which is Doctors Medical Center fiscal update and Declaration of emergency um and there's going to be a presentation by supervisor John Joya you get me tonight on this one this is good um good evening I'm John Joya I represent of course West County On The Board of Supervisors and first let me

0:27:07start by saying um the city should be feel should be very proud of the wonderful Martin Luther King event that was held uh yesterday I mean it's the longest running MLK event in the county I think and the best so it's great it was long this year a little long but it

0:27:24was a very great entertainment great message um I'm here in my role through the county as a governing board member of doctors hospital and I wanted to personally come just to let you know what's going on since you have so much on your agenda I thought it was easy to

0:27:37let you know personally and for the public to hear um it's not the first time you've heard about the financial challenges of doctors hospital but just sort of a little history right Doctors Hospital is a public hospital that was formed in the in 1954 as a healthcare district there

0:27:54were many Health Care districts around the state of California set up in the 1950s and many hospitals uh Healthcare healthcare district hospitals have closed since that time in fact here in Contra Costa County there were three District hospitals Los Medanos which out in Pittsburgh which

0:28:12closed Mount Diablo healthcare district that hospital was taken over by John Muir and so Doctors Hospital is the last District Hospital still surviving in Contra Costa County starting in about the mid 1990s the hospital started suffering greater Financial challenges and you ask why is

0:28:33that and I'll go into a little bit about sort of the the payer mix just to understand this hospital about 54 of its patients are on Medicare 20 on Medi-Cal so it's about 75 percent um 12 are what we call Commercial pay like Blue Cross Health Net 11 percent are uninsured and three

0:28:56percent other government so that basically means that for the 75 percent who are on Medicare or medical the hospital is receiving as reimbursements less than the cost of providing care and there are many hospitals that have large numbers of Medicare and Medi-Cal

0:29:16but not as high as this hospital but they compensate for that by the better reimbursement rate they get from private insurance companies but this hospital has only 12 percent uh commercial pay Kaiser has a majority of the commercial Market in West Contra Costa County

0:29:32Kaiser is the largest health insurance company in the state and they have the large over a majority in West Contra Costa so the result of that is a very challenging payer mix tenant which is a for-profit hospital chain um came in in 1997 and under contract with the health care District

0:29:53started operating the hospital and by 2004 it determined it was also losing money and couldn't make the hospital profitable it it terminated its contract to operate the hospital and the hospital reverted back to the Health Care district and at that time there was a

0:30:10parcel tax that was passed by voters at about 80 percent it was 52 a year to help close the gap but the hospital continued to suffer and in 2006 it posted a loss of about 35 million dollars a year and filed for bankruptcy that's when I advocated for the county to become involved in the

0:30:31governance and also to help with some financing to bring in some State financing the county made alone made several loans over the years so while the loss has essentially been cut in half and there was a passage of another as you know another parcel tax at 74 percent two years ago for 47 a year so

0:30:51voters paid 99 per year between these two parcel taxes the hospital also did get some State funding for several years but that funding has gone away Kaiser and John Muir provided some funding but that has also gone away although we've been in discussions with Kaiser because Kaiser hospital is their

0:31:11hospital that would be most impacted by the closure of Doctors Hospital doctors has 40 000 emergency room visits per year it has 25 emergency room beds Kaiser has 15.

0:31:22so I don't it's pretty clear if those 25 beds no longer exist there's going to be dramatic impacts on our EMS system and the county commissioned a study a couple of years ago the health department which found that if this Hospital closes and this emergency room closed that there

0:31:39would be longer ambulance transport times and longer waiting room times and other area hospitals that could reach up to hours and the Kaiser would be most impacted so this Hospital somewhat represents the problems in our Health Care system in general a very needed emergency room

0:31:55um that is not able to exist as a standalone Hospital what we're seeing now under the Affordable Care Act are more consolidations of hospitals like UC San Francisco affiliating and merging with Children's Hospital of Oakland in fact the county is in discussions

0:32:11with UC San Francisco over possible affiliation that could include Doctors Hospital whether that happens who knows it takes time for that to um uh to come about um the um the hospital also um if if you call if you call 9-1-1 and you have a heart attack if you had a

0:32:34heart attack or stroke you will go to Doctors Hospital even if you're a Kaiser patient because doctors are certified um and has the specialty in place to handle heart attacks and Kaiser it's it's a full service heart attacks and stroke it is a full service emergency

0:32:48room so even if you're not a regular user of Doctor's Hospital if you call 9-1-1 that's most likely where you will go um so it's its main value is determined by the by the health department study is it's its emergency room to the area so the hospital has searched far and

0:33:06wide for several years we've been in a turnaround mode to for a fit for partners to affiliate um we're not an attractive Target for affiliation um so these discussions are ongoing between the county and UC San Francisco again as I said that could take over a year to resolve one way or the other

0:33:25um and the hospital is also exploring the possibility of going back out to voters to give them a choice as to whether to help close the financial gap or close it um and make it more attractive for affiliation with another parcel attacks we've been in discussions with Kaiser

0:33:44hospital and have a request into them um exploring some other sources and the hospital at current projected rates will run out of cash by June any other cash it gets in will give it more time to continue to explore these options so the hospital board declared a fiscal

0:34:03emergency and it is continuing to pursue all the available options and the county still has an interest in in trying to preserve this hospital we made another loan of about nine million dollars earlier last year so I wanted just to update you on the dire circumstances I mean if this

0:34:23Hospital does not come up with some short-term cash to give it more time to continue to explore long-term options it will have to make a decision to close and um we'll see greater impacts as I say on on all debates and Kaiser somewhat the county hospital but mostly Kaiser and

0:34:41the res it will the residents will suffer so I'm really available for for questions but I wanted to sort of let you know where things are and um oh the other thing I'll say under the Affordable Care Act folks what's the effect of um of of the new health care law in the hospital

0:34:59so it's two-sided coin so the remember I said there's about 11 who are uninsured it is estimated that about a quarter of those over time will enroll in Insurance because there are still many homeless people who will not enroll so about a quarter of those will enroll insurance

0:35:16so they'll there's some positive impact from that but on the other hand Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates go down under the Affordable Care Act so the net effect will be a loss an additional loss of about two and a half million dollars a year however as I indicated earlier

0:35:34the possibility of a consolidation uh is is is possible because the Affordable Care Act is sort of incentivizing incentivizing consolidations and affiliations so um it could have a long-term positive effect but the in the short term um there'll be about a two and a half

0:35:52million dollar additional loss to the hospital I hate being the messenger of bad news but um it's important to we've been going to every Council um meeting to sort of talk about this and um again when I advocated for the county to be involved in 2007 it's with every effort

0:36:13to try to save this hospital it still has a five-member elected Health Care board that ultimately has to make most of its decisions we have a governing board of 11 that includes the five-member health care board to private community physicians who practice in the community and at the

0:36:29hospital three members of our health department and myself but ultimately the final decisions are made by the five member elected Health Care board um is there any affiliation between um Doctors Hospital and Contra Costa Health Center so there there are Partnerships there's no affiliation

0:36:49um the county has a clinic uh in West Contra Costa the West County Health Clinic I mean most of the primary care is provided public Primary Care is provided through the County clinic which is in San Pablo now we've explored those types of affiliations um the um

0:37:07but there it's not part of the county system it is separate there's been I'm asked all the time should the county take over this Hospital um I think that's worth exploring although I'm also a political realist in the long term um um I think if you look at the county

0:37:23structure the the majority of the Board of Supervisors is going to look very carefully and say well should we be taking over a hospital that's losing close to 20 million dollars a year and how will that impact our Primary Care system and our own health system because the primary impact of the

0:37:37closure is on on Kaiser but let me talk about one other factor that I think you're aware of there are many other non-profit hospitals in this County and they get a tax break the Contra Costa times did a study a couple years ago that showed that the county hospital Martinez followed by

0:37:57Doctors Hospital San Pablo do the overwhelming amount of charity care care to uninsured in this County and that there are non-profit hospitals like Sutter and John Muir and Kaiser um who I believe should also share in the county-wide impact on Health Care the California Nurses Association had a

0:38:20bill last year that was opposed by the California Hospital Association and did not pass that would have doubled the requirement of community benefit for non-profit hospitals because just because you're a non-profit Hospital in Walnut Creek where you don't have to do

0:38:33as much charity care care for uninsured or for Medi-Cal and Medicaid shouldn't let you off the hook of your county-wide requirement on community benefit so frankly that's a larger discussion that's not going to get resolved overnight so those are the kinds of discussions though that are occurring

0:38:51yeah in you know in Solano County there's very few medical providers that exist and and Kaiser does actually take medication and kite and Solano that's correct okay in Contra Costa about 80 percent of the of the medical patients get their their Primary Care through the county

0:39:11um Health Contra Costa Health Plan in this County at least and So currently you're losing well it's about it's running a little under 2 million a month the volume has gone down for a couple of other reasons the trend has gone down in terms of inpatient volume but also the largest

0:39:33a Physician Group private Physician Group commercial private Physician Group in West County was recently purchased by Stanford so guess what they now tend to refer their patients more to a Stanford Hospital previously there were more referrals to Doctors Hospitals so what you're seeing right

0:39:53these affiliations between Hospital systems and you know this well and and physician groups so so Affinity which has physicians in Pinole and San Pablo used to have some in El Cerrito they're now owned by Stanford so they refer more patients for hospitalization to Stanford

0:40:12but we're seeing a decrease in volume generally how much of the medical staff is affiliated with Stanford no the the not the hospital medical staff but the private there's a private group that's the group Affinity which is the largest private Physician Group right in West

0:40:26Contra Costa um was purchased about a year or two ago by Stanford and so they now have more of a relationship to refer patients to Stanford for procedures um instead of doctors hospital so does that group have admitting privileges that other hospitals they do right so a

0:40:44lot of Physicians now have admitting privileges at Alta Bates doctors in fact what you're seeing also is an aging of the physician base in West County that's also not good news because as they retire we're see so patients in West County may be going to their primary

0:41:01care physician in Berkeley or Albany or or somewhere else who then refer them to Alta Bates so the bottom line and people can choose right to get their health to be hospitalized get health care wherever they want but the the Dilemma is then when you call 9-1-1 because they're the

0:41:17closest emergency room hospital to West County outside of West county is all debates other than Kaiser and the county Martinez those are longer distances that when you call 9-1-1 when you live in West County right now you're predominantly going to Doctors Hospital

0:41:30in fact the percent is um what is it it's as I said there's 40 000 emergency room visits which is the overwhelming majority of emergency room visits in in West County it's actually about 60 of the emergency room visits in West County are at Doctors Hospital and

0:41:4680 of the inpatient capacity is at doctor's hospital so aside from the obvious with the lack of reimbursement with Medicare medical and the 10 to 12 percent or whatever uninsured could could you have a scenario where you have an intensive care unit an emergency room only

0:42:06yeah and how how does that how would that work and is that even something that's viable I mean you think about implications with you know the big one coming and that there aren't a whole lot of hospital beds in the East Bay and we're very we would potentially be very impacted right that's true so to

0:42:23you raised two points there The Stance sort of this Standalone emergency room and then the seismic so we brought in a turnaround a CEO who is a turnaround specialist who's very good who's been exploring all these options we've had we've had a lot of analysis working with

0:42:40Kaiser the hospital Association the county um so um there are no currently no stand-alone emergency rooms in California some other states have them and the analysis that we did determined that you would need a couple of things to make a standalone emergency room work and even then it

0:42:58would still lose money the Standalone emergency room is usually a hospital that is part of a larger system and it has to have a contract in place to so as you know most patients who come into an emergency room off are not admitted right they're treated and they're

0:43:11released for the ones you would need to admit you would need to have a contract in place with another hospital to transfer them so you'd have to have an arrangement but even then the analysis showed that the hospital was to lose money so clearly there is a need for

0:43:26greater Urgent Care Services the County Health Clinic in San Pablo which is two blocks away from the hospital has evening hours and is extending their hours to try to see more patients we've been working with the city of San Pablo on the seismic issue the city's been

0:43:39very cooperative um the city which sold the land to the county to build a health care the health facility is interested in locating the hospital on its site and the and then the hospital would sell its property and it would be a smaller hospital that would be rebuilt there's a requirement

0:43:55that by 2020 you have to meet seismic requirements and it would cost about 130 million dollars to build a smaller 70 Bed Hospital but we can't get there unless the hospital's sustainable the good news is we think we can get the financing together and work with the city to build

0:44:12a new hospital so we've been working on a parallel track on the seismic efforts as well as trying to make the hospital sustainable so that's what's going on and um and even with additional money from Kaiser which we would be up which were optimistic about Hope for it extends the

0:44:31life of the hospital a bit more just to give it a longer Runway to continue to explore the long-term Solutions as they again we're looking at the parcel tax issue in Alameda voters approved a parcel tax to save that hospital in the city of Alameda um so um you know one other possibility

0:44:47is the EMS tax that we pay in this county is very small it's like ten dollars of parcel countywide we've been exploring whether to increase to put on the ballot an increase of the EMS fee that we have which would then be county-wide and it would go for the EMS system so doctors could be one of the

0:45:05beneficiaries that wouldn't close the gap but these are other possibilities frankly the best possibility is some kind of affiliation but the hospital really has to be able to also be more successful to be to to be attractive for that but so what we're seeing is

0:45:21something that you know this financial issue has existed for since the mid 90s and we've just found short-term solutions by getting funding from the state funding from Kaiser cutting some costs closing OB all of these difficult decisions but it's not hasn't been a

0:45:36long-term solution my question I think you just answered it a few minutes ago with regards to resizing the hospital and downsizing the number of beds I think it's currently 300 beds and it would go down to 70.

0:45:52yeah and the census has been running you know I can see the recent numbers but it's it's been running in that 70 to 90 range 100 so the idea is a smaller Hospital clearly makes sense um but the hospital still even had a smaller size would lose money under its current model and and I think

0:46:11councilmember Bridges brought up the point I'm not sure if it was asked Point Blank like this post earthquake uh on the Hayward fault what is the projected uh you know need for primary treatment post earthquake and how does this how does going from 300 beds to 70 beds uh

0:46:30benefit or or with you know eliminate some of our capacity I mean you know the whole the number of event patient beds the need for the number of inpatient beds has just gone down because generally because people are getting their health care outpatient other more

0:46:43efficient better ways so clearly you have you have to size the hospital in a way that is going to make it most financially sustainable but you're right there is a need for more beds if there's a major earthquake on the Hayward fault there's mostly a need for an emergency

0:46:58room um and that's why our number one goal has been to save the 25 beds at that emergency room the last parcel tax we put on the ballot two years ago we were very clear with the voters and said this parcel tax will sunset and go away if the hospital closes because we did not

0:47:13want voters to continue to pay it if the hospital closes like other health care districts we would do the same if there's another measure on the ballot we would have the the tax Sunset if if the emergency room closes so um yeah not a not a pretty picture and um

0:47:30um and in fact the um the health department study showed that waiting room times in a West County emergency room if it wasn't like a heart attack you know requiring Immediate Care could be 10 hours this hospital closed because Kaiser would get so inundated there have been

0:47:45pump some people who speculated Kaiser hasn't said this whether Kaiser would consider closing their emergency room if doctors closed because they would be get they would they haven't said this but there's been some speculation whether they would consider that because they

0:47:58would get so impacted by the closure of of this hospital because they have only 15 beds I mean we've we've been in discussions with Kaiser about possible Partnerships with Kaiser they haven't LED anywhere they're two totally different systems right um so uh that's that's that's again the

0:48:17Dilemma by the way you may have seen Alta Bates recently released an announcement that they that they lost was it that they lost money um recently of course they're they're part of a system so if that individual Hospital assuming their calculations are all done right if you know made the

0:48:34right assumptions but if that hospital you know has lost money at least it's it's offset by revenues in other parts of their system Doctors Hospital doesn't have that it's it's one Hospital a stand-alone Hospital which is not a very efficient way to operate now a hospital

0:48:51Mark uh one question uh how many employees are there so there are 665 full-time equivalent it's about a thousand people work there but some are part-time so it's 665 full-time equivalent employees well my comment is that that's a huge economic condition for West County also and I would guess

0:49:13that a majority of the employees there live in West County also right so uh besides the obvious need for Health Care um this is would be a huge hole in our thousand people work there right and then my other comment is uh Stanford recently opened a pediatric clinic in

0:49:32Emeryville directly competing with children to skim off the full pay patients so it's something to be watched and we maybe should send the delegation over to Palo Alto right no that's what we're seeing I mean that's that's right Mark they there and that has been a challenge

0:49:51in children's hospital is now more viable because it's part of UC San Francisco um and um Stanford owning a physician practice here in West County is impacted as well it's just what we're seeing more of more consolidations you know the the future success for Doctors Hospitals for

0:50:08Doctors Hospital to affiliate but just hasn't been attractive enough we've explored and I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue for many years and uh all the work you and your staff have put into trying to move this forward thank you thanks yeah okay so you'll hear more

0:50:27um if if especially if we decide to do another measure um you know we think what sir voters now paying 99 a year um and you know are they willing to pay more we'll see we'll be looking at doing a poll and and um and the idea is whether voters consider this a an insurance policy and

0:50:47and again it would provide have a sunset provision to um to go away if the if the emergency room were to close but you know I appreciate you know you're throwing out these Alternatives we've been looking at all these in the Standalone emergency room clearly um a lot of the people who go to doctors

0:51:02hospital for emergency room care don't necessarily need emergency room care but they don't necessarily know that when they're going right I mean so after they're triaged it's determined that they may not need it they may need urgent care but um um you know that so having it having an

0:51:18urgent care center if this Hospital closes is something that would help you know make up the need it still wouldn't meet the whole need because it still doesn't meet the emergency room care but it would it would take up some of the Urgent Care demand I have a a final question that kind of

0:51:33follows up on that um I'm I'm a I go to Kaiser and it seems to me when you go to Kaiser that they do everything they can to keep you out of the emergency room [Music] um by triage by um you know when you call up they try to figure out do you want to go to right

0:51:54should you go to urgent care or should you go um to the emergency room and um I actually uh broke my actually my toes recently and um I um already had a Kaiser appointment in the eye clinic which is why I broke my toes anyway but not from the because I couldn't see

0:52:18but anyway the um so so I kind of just sort of said I'll just let it ride until I get there and see what happens and what happened was kind of interesting in that they completely directed me to my doctor and I got everything I needed including physical therapy on the spot

0:52:40um without ever going to the emergency room what it kind of made me think about was um why are we directing people to the emergency room I think the answer to that is partly that we don't have any outpatient facilities where you can just sort of go so for example the people who don't have

0:53:03insurance if there were spread throughout West County at some level outpatient facilities where they could go and get treated without having to go to the emergency room then maybe that would be better for them and maybe it would be cheaper remember 90 of the people who go to them who go

0:53:22to that hospital have insurance it's just that and 75 percent of them have Medicare Medi-Cal and most of them have primary care physicians um who who [Music] they could call as an alternative what we're seeing is of the Forty thousand there are a number of those who don't

0:53:42need emergency room care but most of them still do and but a very small number I think it's ten thousand or or less actually or no I don't know the numbers less than that that are actually admitted um but that the majority that need emergency room care um are released after their after they've

0:54:06gone and received their care so that there's still that population that will be impacted by the closure of this emergency room and then many people who need Urgent Care don't know that when they're going in yes there are some people who go in there who are uninsured

0:54:20who get their primary care because they don't have a physician but that's only 11 percent but I'm actually thinking more of not just the I and what I'm thinking about is the population of people who go to the emergency room who could have gone to their doctor regardless of what their insurance is

0:54:36right and that's why the goal is making sure everybody has a medical home and has a primary care physician and and the 75 percent that our Medicare Medi-Cal basically have a primary care physician and but they they're choosing to often call and go into the emergency room

0:54:53because they feel that's what they need but you're right that number can go down but it won't make the difference of whether this hospital is successful or not but ultimately it's because the 75 percent who are on medical and Medicare the reimbursement rate is far below the

0:55:08cost of providing service and there's not enough commercial care to make up for any way you slice it only 12 percent of the folks who go through a commercial pay that's where you make your profit and it's really hard to make profit in a hospital where only 12 percent

0:55:23right of your patients have commercial insurance and the 75 percent have Medi-Cal or Medicare that's that's the challenge ultimately and so for example if you're in the if if you're um in the county health plan right you can make appointment to go to the the largest outpatient facility is

0:55:40two blocks away um then and then people call their their private physicians having more Urgent Care is definitely something that is that is advisable is needed and and frankly if this Hospital closes I think having more Urgent Care is going to happen and that's already

0:55:58been being looked at but it's not going to ultimately make the difference over whether this Hospital survives it'll help with our health care needs and with and Kaiser Kaiser if you think about it Kaiser just is a is a health insurance plan that happens to have a hospital and

0:56:11their job is to keep you out of their Hospital their job right is it's unlike other area hospitals that are not insurance plans you know they they make a profit off commercial pay insurance Kaiser Kaiser makes a profit by keeping you out of their hospital by getting you

0:56:29to their Physicians because they're one system Contra Costa County Health Plan is just like Kaiser you know Physicians lab work and hospital and their job whereas the hospital system like doctors is disconnected from Physicians right I just have one last question so

0:56:46do you think that um this 75 percent of people that come in for care also have a lot of comorbidities like diabetes hyperlipidemia cardiac disease whatever there's a lot of and there's a lot of also there's there's actually a defined group of regulars who come in as well

0:57:03yes and I think you know you can you picture through through comorbidity Medicare the the reimbursement skyrockets right up right um and maybe that's a good way to think about the Urgent Care in conjunction with you know giving you higher reimbursement levels because that that

0:57:24is that is where the money is right now right and all of these are ways to bring the loss down and sort of ladies they will they will not all of these things incrementally can help reduce the loss from you know it's now running it because of the lower volume it's gone up

0:57:38to 19 it was 15 million a year it's closer to 19 but we'll bring the loss down but won't close the gap and but there's still hard work trying to do all of this has even been work on billing I remember one of the first things which I found really astounding back in 2007

0:57:54when I got involved is the hospital renegotiated its contracts with Blue Cross and other insurance companies because like Ulta Bates was getting more a greater reimbursement from Blue Cross for the exact same medical procedure than doctor's hospital was because it

0:58:13was part of a large system and had leverage and bargaining power with Blue Cross whereas a standalone hospital did not so Sutter could negotiate a better reimbursement rate we were able to change that rate change that but that's some of the challenges that you face

0:58:28with the Standalone Hospital doesn't have the economies of scale right it doesn't have even for our own County system we've been really we're looking at wanting to affiliate with like a UC San Francisco it would be a great opportunity to have two public systems

0:58:42like that together because we Face some of the same challenges at the county system well thank you very much for coming and and um sharing and um thanks for your support over the years on on this and Doctors Hospital supporting its efforts supporting parcel taxes and and I

0:59:01thought it was important to come to you to let you know the details of what's going on so if you get asked um and um and obviously we'll coming back my um one of the one of the board members is up at the Pinole city council tonight so I chose to come here to El Cerrito to

0:59:14fill you in and um we've gone to all the councils thank you one last question is the is the partial tax eligible for this June we are looking at that now it could be in June it could be a special election so the last time there was an election like this it was in November of 2011 and

0:59:33it was a special election mail-only ballot and um that passed with 74 so we're exploring all options I haven't decided yet thank you but we would want it before the end of June so it could take effect to the next fiscal year good luck yes thank you very much okay

0:59:56okay next is the adoption of the consent calendar which is items 5A and B we do have one speaker oh I'm sorry on the uh for 4B and uh calendar combined okay I'm sorry alrighty and um and I feel like I'm a nobody so okay that's okay it's not your fault honorable mayor city council member

1:00:26Cardell Handler Richmond let me tell you what we mean by economic reciprocity corporations are making substantial profits and they owe them to their black community the black community is their margin of profit yet these corporations do not do business with us and the reason I say that is because I

1:00:46do go go to Doctors Medical Center and Kaiser and I'm thinking if if Doctor's Medical Center really close up where will all the patients go they can't go to um Alta base or any other Hospital in the county but we needed we try to figure out ways how we're going to keep Doctors Medical

1:01:04Center open so that way it'll be like it'll be good for everyone families and um and and people who have a diabetes and that type of thing so I figured if we can figure out a way how are we going how the city council and the and and the county can like figure out

1:01:22ways uh on how we're going to keep uh these hospitals open we we gotta like put our heads together and think of ways on how we're gonna put Doctors Medical Center back on the map thank you very much thank you okay I'd like to move items 5A and 5p noted in the agenda it says on the 5A it

1:01:46says January 27th that's actually January 7th 2014. so 5A is minutes 5B is West Contra Costa Youth Services Bureau Proclamation okay is there a second okay um motion is by um Mark Friedman seconded by Jan Bridges all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposition

1:02:08abstention motion cares unanimously with that we have no public hearings we'll move on to public policy 7A which is approval of a land and water conservation fund Grant application to unite the hillside Natural Area and restrict the use of specified Hillside Natural Area to public Recreation open

1:02:32space only Melanie you'll just need to tap the there you go good evening mayor Abelson and council members my name is Melanie Mintz and I'm the City's community development director I'm here tonight to ask that you approve a resolution authorizing staff to submit a Grant

1:03:06application to the land and water conservation fund requesting up to 250 000 for matching funds to assist with the acquisition of the Madera Hillside Natural Area Property in addition and as a part of that approval the resolution commits the city to abiding by section 6f3 of the land

1:03:24and water conservation fund act which requires that the city impose deed restrictions on the entire Hillside Natural Area as defined by the Grant application restricting future use of the hillside Natural Area to public outdoor recreational use only by way of background city council

1:03:41entered into an agreement with the trust for public land to acquire three privately owned Parcels that together comprise the 8.08 Madera Hillside National Area Property the agreement with the trust for public land specified that the city would purchase these properties by December

1:03:5617th of 2014 to allow time for private and public fundraising to occur as a result of our agreement with trust for public land they purchased the property from the private landowner and closed on August 30th thereby protecting the land the eight acre property from development in

1:04:14perpetuity the city also entered into an agreement with trust for public land at that time to provide acquisition and fundraising assistance including submission of competitive regional state and federal grants in partnership with the city the item before you tonight is to

1:04:28approve submittal of the land and water conservation fund grant for the acquisition of the 8.08 Madera property comprised by three parcels the land and water conservation fund program allows for reimbursement of up to 50 percent of project costs and allows the full market value of the

1:04:46property to calculate the value of the project an appraisal conducted for the properties in August appraised the market value at five hundred thousand dollars and the city is therefore applying for half of that for two hundred fifty thousand dollars in regards to the deed restriction a key

1:05:01component of the land and water conservation fund is that it preserves the land where federal funds are invested for public outdoor recreation in perpetuity the land and water conservation fund requires that not only the land that receives the lwcf funding be protected

1:05:16but that the entire park unit of which the L of which the federal funding project is a part the federal funded project is a part the land and water conservation fund acts section 6 F3 outlines its requirement and for the city this means that application and eventual acceptance

1:05:33if we are successful in our Grant application of the land and water conservation fund uh monies would place the entire Hillside Natural Area in six F3 protection restricting its use to public outdoor recreation I have a couple of graphics and maps to show you what this

1:05:48would mean and a final map will be prepared before the February 3rd Grant deadline using the state's online mapping tool which just was put up on their website I'm going to show you here you can see this is just a sample 6 F3 map 6f3 requires that with our Grant

1:06:13application we prepare a boundary map that shows the entire park unit you can sometimes put in for a self-sustaining smaller unit you can imagine if there's a park within a national park for example or a park with a national forest lands you might not protect the entire

1:06:29Forest but but the national park within it in our case the eight acre acquisition is clearly a part of the overall Hillside Natural Area the boundary map allows you to preclude or exclude from protection properties where there's already conflicting uses or requirements or restrictions

1:06:51let me show you another one which would show actually well this one you can see is an aerial of the area and somewhere I have the pointer I might come back to this one in for a moment but in this map you can see where we the red is the hillside Natural Area South and

1:07:16then as you cross Potrero the hillside Natural Area North you can see the green Madeira property and you can also see within the is kind of an area shaped sort of like a hammerhead shark the um that area is the footprint of the recycling center and the Corp yard and

1:07:39the antennas that that are leased so we would be excluding those areas and when I show you a zoning map you can see that all of this the area that we would be putting the deed restrictions on are comprised is actually comprised of 27 Parcels um I can go back to the parcel map

1:08:01um but all of those Parcels actually are currently designated as open space natural within our parks and open space districts in our zoning ordinance and that those districts are already actually the purpose of those I could read it specifically from our zoning

1:08:18ordinance but our two Preserve in perpetuity Public Access and for open space natural which is what the open space Natural Area is owned is also to preserve those without development for Passive Recreation so where we would be putting the 6f3 map would actually

1:08:34coincide with all the publicly owned open space natural Zone zoned properties it would not include this here which is also open space natural but is actually owned mostly by PG e so again it would be the open space natural city-owned properties and it would also exclude

1:08:53what you see right here which is again that kind of hammerhead shape which is the recycling center which is for a public and semi-public uses which does actually allow private and or exclusive use such as the recycling center so I can answer I'm sure you'll have some questions uh

1:09:18about that in regards to funding and fundraising the city is committed to purchasing the property from Trust for Public land for 475 000 which is the amount that the trust for public land negotiated with the private landowner if successful the land and water conservation fund grant for 250 000

1:09:35would reduce the city's use of its measure WWE Park funds to 225 thousand dollars the city with assistance from Trust for Public land has also recently submitted a national Fish and Wildlife Federation Wells Fargo Grant application for eighty thousand dollars and anticipate

1:09:52anticipates continue continuing to submit Grant applications as opportunities arise prior to needing to close the transaction in December I'm joined tonight also by Brendan Moriarty from Trust for Public land if you have any questions of them or in specifics on the land and water

1:10:08conservation fund application and also members of the El Cerrito open space campaign uh Dave and Pam are here also if you would like an update on on their uh private fundraising Campaign which is also working to reduce the city's measure ww Park Bond contribution to the

1:10:25acquisition and I think in the staff report as of last week I said that we had that they had raised 25 000 but I think it's up to twenty eight thousand dollars now and they will continue also raising funds uh through December um so that concludes my report for tonight and I'm happy to answer

1:10:43questions or to turn it over to Brendan or Dave or Pam if you have questions with them questions from the council I have one with go ahead Greg can you bring the parcel map back up the red red polygons and green polygon um so on this map um all of this is is mapped zoned open

1:11:07space but not all of it actually some of it like Parcels 26 and 27 are opened are par uh zoned PS or public space actually 26 and 27.

1:11:19right here and here are actually on the other side of Schmidt and they are I believe let's go back to the zoning map oh they're actually uh you uh you there's a combination you're right so one is Parks and Rec Parks and Recreation and one is also a public space so PS is public NPR is

1:11:40Parks and Rec so in the open space and Parks uh no that's not the right location it's the PS above that this one you have to go no keep going north north of Mosher there you go right there so that's actually on so this map is a little change all of the our zoning method

1:12:04I believe isn't it no um basically all of the area that is zoned Publix PS uh will be excluded from the 6f protection so we will be uh reconciling that rgis currently doesn't have our zoning as a part of it um and and this so we haven't reconciled those but we will be actually talking to

1:12:26the land and water conservation fund but I presume that we will be probably excluding anything that is um zoned PS because it's allowable uses or not are um not restricted to public outdoor recreation and can be fenced off and available for for example Courtyard

1:12:42expansion okay can having looked at this map again can we go back to the green and red one yep um so I believe that partial 26 is that PS area and certainly as you've noted here the gray area is is an area that you would exclude because of its current use um Parcels one through eleven at the

1:13:03very North is one of those we purchased from uh East Bay mud not too long ago which is number one are you saying that those would be included in the application and those would be included in the application and yet they're not contiguous with the parcel um so one of the one of the things that

1:13:23I thought you were alluding to is that contiguency was was part of the criteria so I was just curious there's a street in between and and the entrance to where the this uh unite the hillside um is you know the entrance would be at parcel 12 um then the subject Parcels a through a

1:13:43through certainly that connects to Parcels 13 through 27 excluding the recycling center and parcel 26. I'm just curious why one through 11 needed to be included in the application because in terms of uniting the hillside Natural Area and this is consistent with the

1:14:02city's policies as well the hillside Natural Area and south and north are considered the hillside Natural Area and one of the strengths of this proposal is that it does bring end one of the main motivations I believe for the city pursuing it was that it did create the opportunity to create a trail

1:14:19connection all the way to Potrero where all you would have to do is cross that street so aside from the public right away it would it would then make those uh contiguous so when we say contiguous it is within the two Hillside Naturals so the the parcels within each of the

1:14:34two Hillside Natural Area um properties does that make sense so Hillside Natural Area North and South and if you the circulation plan for bicyclists and pedestrians highlighted acquiring property to be able to create this connection as a project so this Madeira property has always been

1:14:52seen as an opportunity to connect the south and north and of course as you point out there's still the public right-of-way in between but there's this there it would allow you to walk all the way to the stairs that descend from Madera Circle um to Potrero and then connect to the

1:15:08hillside Natural Area North so uniting the hillside Natural Area is actually referring to North and South not just to uniting parcel 12 with the South the southern portions you said it makes the application stronger but you've not answered the question is it necessary to include this

1:15:28area for the application we think it's necessary to include it the the if you read it when it looks in an urban area and creating a mile long trail system if you think about a federally competitive program anything that you would look at that would logically we could at risk I mean this is you know

1:15:45it's there's a lot of strategy when you're submitting grants if you were to just consider the hillside Natural Area South its own lesser unit you might be able to make that argument I think that the state parks would look logically at this other Hillside Natural

1:16:02Area and ask why you weren't willing why we weren't willing to also place that protection on it and and the uh the agenda Bill discusses the fact that you can reverse this type of deed restriction however you have to replace it with similar in-kind local locality property for the purposes of

1:16:22recreation um by putting this on everything we own we have almost no opportunity to reverse this this deed restriction um so a couple of answers to that so it does allow changes to to use so so there are [Music] um there's administrative relief and it's it's aimed to be pretty flexible and if

1:16:43you think about the way that a lot of national parks are operated they're not entirely restrictive that it's only for a certain type of recreation so it's pretty Broad in what you're allowed to use it as um it does say that if you were to actually for example fence off and say

1:16:57that a certain area could not be used for public Recreation anymore it does specify unless for some reason you can convince the department of interior that you don't need to that you need to replace that in kind it's pretty similar to what we actually went through with

1:17:09Bart in in terms of their protections on their land the um so there is a process in place and you and actually I was reading the guidelines it doesn't actually have to even be adjacent so for example if for some reason we found out that there was someplace else in town that we wanted to

1:17:25provide um you know a new park that that could count to so it doesn't have to actually be a part of the hillside Natural Area it really is just trying to preserve that amount of acreage for public Recreation similarly although open space natural that isn't very lenient on this

1:17:41so our current zoning wouldn't allow structures it would allow Recreation structures if that was as long as again the purpose was for public outdoor recreation and it was pre-approved so there is a process um it looks it appears to be pretty flexible but it is trying to protect

1:17:56that it the purpose of the 1964 Act is to expand recreational opportunities so so if the one acre air tank pad area up there at the East End of Snowden Avenue parcel one we did decide to put a playground or some other type of structure there this would that would not be inconsistent

1:18:14with this and in fact um if we had that already we would include for example that it's a proposed structure if we knew that were the case but from my reading of it I can double check um but if it's for public outdoor recreation and um I'll again look at the specific

1:18:30guidelines but that doesn't mean free and open at all times necessarily it just means that it's still dedicated to public outdoor recreation so so we wouldn't be able to put a clubhouse there we would potentially be able to with their approval I'll look at it again but

1:18:44when I was looking at it today just now it looks like it I'll look again as um as two structures I actually think that um open space OSN might not let us do that but ospr would so we'd have to you know look at our own zoning as well so so we have for example we felt that

1:19:03we needed to put a um a remote station let's say a small police station or a small uh Fire Protection Agency to allow us to police this open space more rigorously is that considered something that would be compatible you know I'd have to be the complete guidelines I mean there's a

1:19:23problem process for that I mean what it would be doing is putting an extra layer of approval on such a thing so it would be taking all of that decision making from us and making us go through this process but it does look like there's process in those type of um if it were I think one of the things

1:19:37I read today is if we could prove that it were to enhance the Public's use of the area that it would likely be approved so what you're suggesting is something like that we would probably be able to make the case that it actually enhances the Public's ability to use

1:19:49this Natural Area but if we retained a couple acres outside of this application we wouldn't need to go through that approval process because we would have the land to swap for the purposes of adding a one of these amenities or facilities that potentially is in conflict

1:20:05um I think there would be two ways and again it'll be it's the advantage of having Master plans Etc so if we knew that that was the case and we had agreed to that we could identify it in the map that that use was actually proposed and we could still decide potentially to do

1:20:19that so it could still be part of the acreage but it would um already be proposed you can see on this um on the sample on the sample did you see that there was a lot of actual structures on there proposal structure number six proposed new indoor structures exactly and then there's an

1:20:35existing indoor structure right so so if we had something like that we could do that so we could decide to exclude it right now but we would have to give a description of why it's excluded which is for example because the city is currently uh trying to determine what to

1:20:49do with this property and didn't want that but we'd have to describe it because it's a pretty clear whole in the unit and so we would have to describe why it's out and they might have questions on that alternately we could identify it as potential future um play field or play structure so that

1:21:05we're identifying that its use that might need ancillary structures for example like restrooms right so we could um I believe that if that was council's um desires tonight even though I know that would still need to go through a planning process that would be appropriate to identify

1:21:23I think I've answered all my questions thank you okay Mark Jan uh no but I just wanted to thank I sent a very long email earlier um a couple days ago and got all my answers so I think I'm pretty much okay um I think that um we're doing a good job I'd like to hear from the trail

1:21:41trackers I do think they're here and I think their fundraising is is coming along so that's good um and I had the same concern was about the recycling center and um you know what kind of Discovery and were we omitting that and then I guess the only other comment I had is I I actually

1:21:58don't know the answer to this question as to the original Hillside Nashville area when it came to be part of the city in what it was before that and and I know that that's been explored a little bit but um you don't even have to answer that now it was just a rhetorical question I

1:22:14don't actually know that I can answer a little just because it's been of Interest so we are also digging it up including I I discovered an email between City staff and the Historic Society from several years ago that said we don't have all of that information and that extensive research would need

1:22:28to be done but I did pull up something from the 1964 Park bonds where some of the um so it was around in the 60s that it was expanded but and in the 20s so it's a fun story to tell but we don't have all of that information either but it looks like um some of it happened at

1:22:45least in the 60s which is when a lot of cities actually uh were expanding their park areas and I guess the only other thing about the the funding source in the lwcf was if we're going to go just for this straight 50 or I guess we'll get some counseling from um working with TPL that'll answer that

1:23:05question and we think we are going to go for the 50 we could put a range but we can't really figure out why exactly but we go we could put a range but we're not seeing any reason to right okay okay thank you I have a a question about the words in perpetuity so um in perpetuity in per in perpetuity

1:23:27goes beyond the life of the existing members of the city council and um what um so often heard it said that we you know we can't make decisions about what a future city council would do and so I guess this is is a Sky question can you explain to me how it's okay here

1:23:55and not there um you're not taking an action to that would bind future councils in in the way that those series of cases mean I can certainly follow up with you more outside of the meeting if it's if it's helpful but I I mean I think I can clarify for the whole Council that that

1:24:18cities can make and City councils can make property related decisions and and the way this would be effectuated is through the recordation of of limitations on the use of the property those would be binding on a city the same as they would be on any other property owner and and that it's just

1:24:36that falls outside of the types of policy making decisions that courts have said City councils can't put into place to attempt to bind future councils I I don't need any follow-up I just want to know that you've followed up and it sounds like you have so um because

1:24:52um because you're because we're often told the other way and so it depends on the circumstances that seems to be the general answer it depends on the type of the nature of the action at issue but it's absolutely a fair question to make sure that that this doesn't fall within the the types

1:25:08of actions that the courts have said are not allowed right because I wouldn't want to do that and then have this um there'd be some problem with this transaction so it does it sounds like there isn't um so um I Heard a request yeah I just had one other comment and that is I

1:25:25suppose with having the federal government um being involved with this that actually might offer us a little even another layer of protection I guess you might say or or more complication to you know the land use but it actually may be a good thing I guess you could see it

1:25:41that way perhaps I actually do um I just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't get challenged um so I heard a request to hear from the trail Trekkers perhaps this is a good time to do that I'm Dave Weinstein president of the trail Trekkers and the vice chairman of

1:26:06the open space campaign I came with a little mini uh and I mean mini presentation about our fundraising effort so far but if you'd rather ask me questions I could just answer them okay um Pam Watson our Treasurer the treasurer of both Trekkers and the open space campaign is also here and she'd

1:26:22like to speak a little bit um I think we're doing fairly well with fundraising um as you know we have promised to raise 100 000 on that is kind of a challenge but of course we don't have a lot of experience but we're working at it um one of the things that we're focusing on is really direct call

1:26:37we're trying to get the names of a lot of people to call because I have this fundraiser friend of mine who's done really good work in San Francisco doesn't even live in in El Cerrito he's willing to make some calls on us because he's so excited um about it and I have to give him names

1:26:50I don't have that many names so people I know so if anybody can think of some people who would welcome the opportunity to really give to this amazing chance to unite the hillside I'd like to hear from them I'd like to also by that way thank you for for doing this it's an

1:27:06unexpected benefit for me the idea that an in perpetuity restriction could be placed on the society area which I think really should be Wilderness and open space in perpetuity I'd like to emphasize the real importance the maps really good as they are don't emphasize when you're walking in

1:27:23the southern part and then you go through this new part that we're buying it's a direct connection to the northern part they really flow together yeah you got to cross that street sure petraro but it's a really very direct connection going back to the fundraising so we are

1:27:36at 28 000 and there's at least 1700 out there that are floating around this sort of a missing check and some stock that's being transferred so we're just about hitting thirty thousand besides doing the direct campaign we're preparing a business Outreach plan this is somewhat

1:27:51tricky but one member of Trekkers has gone around we're trying to identify places for example the same place the country across the Civic Theater puts their banners up about their plays and we want to put up a billboard there a banner that would say what we're doing

1:28:05to really let people know about it because there are many people in the community who really don't know what we're doing and we would also be able to put logos there for businesses who contribute we're about to get underway with a a campaign to Target local businesses

1:28:20um we are also reaching out into neighbors we've had one neighborhood party we have several others underway these are mostly but not entirely in neighborhoods that are really adjacent to the hillside Natural Area as a whole the group echo which as you might remember was fighting to preserve some

1:28:37other land just north of the hillside area are quite interested in getting involved and they say that around Marshall I get involved I think the most exciting event we're talking about is a hillside Festival where we have a committee mostly eqc guys you know there's so much enthusiasm that I found

1:28:53on the eqc and elsewhere in the community the idea is it'll be in the early March probably maybe mid-march excuse me actually I meant mid-spring March or April and we have would invite all kinds of different environmental groups the California Native Plant Society friends of five Creeks Audubon

1:29:10Society Etc et cetera to do something in the hillside area we would invite a lot of people there'd be stations there'd be activities things to learn identify native plants meanwhile we would Garner a whole bunch of names of people who were associated with these groups in the

1:29:24general public so it would be educational it'd be a way to really build some excitement going um we lead a lot of hikes here's our um the the next one some of these highs we've only had like a few people on but some of them We've Ended up with a thousand bucks at the end of that hike

1:29:38so we're doing pretty good there we're looking into crowdfunding we have another member of our groups looking into some crowdfunding Source I forget which one who knows we might be able to do that um that seems to be most of what we're doing in terms of strategy if you have

1:29:54any other ideas although as I've been telling people at this point we don't need ideas so much as people to actually accomplish them and take charge of them but I believe we're going to reach our our goal that is Our intention I've been telling people that if we can really do

1:30:09this and show the strong Community Support it'll make it much easier just on the off chance we ever want to buy more open space in the city uh at this point I could take questions no thank you for all your efforts okay thank you okay and I think Pam would like to say a word quickly too thank you

1:30:28very much so I'm Pam Austin and as Dave mentioned I'm treasurer of both the El Cerrito Trail Trekkers and the open space campaign um we are still ramping up the fundraising activities but we have already received over 28 thousand dollars and with uh two two items that

1:30:54are outstanding we're going to be over thirty thousand dollars um and that's to in support of our commitment to raise a hundred thousand dollars we're very committed to that and actually hope to go over that number so that we um use as little as possible of measure

1:31:12ww funds and protect them for other Parks um um and uh Community uh park and recreation activities so um the majority of our donations are actually small they're more in the hundred dollars or uh or below amounts uh though we do have some that are larger than that

1:31:37um but to me that's kind of the character of um of um the donors and and you know that there is is kind of widespread interest in in this um when Dave takes or anybody takes people out to the property um they immediately become very excited so I would like to um just uh give my my request for your

1:32:02support of the of the trust Republic land grant that's being written to help us we're very happy to have them as a partner here and um so that we can complete the purchase all right thank you thank you okay um maybe it's time now to ask for are there any um requests to speak I have no other

1:32:30speaker slips for this okay is there a motion yeah actually before I I um perpetuity is a very serious word and and uh we are binding the future of the property other councils are not um on um are are as the City attorney pointed out other future councils don't get the

1:32:54choice to undo this easily um so I I am concerned with retiring our property rights and would encourage us to minimize the property to the bare minimum that's necessary for a successful uh item so with that I mean I pointed out lots of things that potentially would require us

1:33:13as much as the federal government is is a great thing they are they can they can really stretch out a process so that something as simple as a clubhouse that we might want to put into this area could take years to get through their approval processes so I I would strongly

1:33:32encourage us to have um property that is ready for exchange for the types of things or that we say please show the flat ground on parcel one as a future use future um combination of indoor and place organized Sports structures the because it we could want to do something in the

1:33:58future and not be able to do it because of the decision we're making this evening and and that that's something I want to make sure that everyone understands the weight of this decision because we are giving we are saying that we will deed away our rights to this property in

1:34:17perpetuity just we're not giving we're not giving away our rights to the property we're just giving away our rights to use the property in other ways right correct but those rights were giving them away those rights we are giving away in perpetuity well given would you be more

1:34:44Mark the pad from East Bay mud be this in area 1B specifically delineated or as as a proposed Clubhouse restroom however you want to word it um I don't know that there'd be too many other opportunities on other pieces of this of any of the parcels is that mainly the concern that certainly is the

1:35:06area with the highest future potential use um I think it's almost the only one but I'm there there are areas around the courtyard but but apparently those have already been trimmed out that there's a knob at the top of motorcycle Hill that is almost dead flat that would certainly

1:35:26be a potential location for uh some form if you go to the map I think it's the end of of uh Regency the end of Kent Court that's where it is which is access from Regency uh yes through the sort of that area the end of Kent Court that's I believe that's if I got my streets mixed up no I'm

1:35:58sorry uh motorcycle Hill is parcel four so the top of parcel 4 up there on the Northern portion there's a a very nice at the end of the walkway um there's a very nice level area and you know it might be a location for a clubhouse or or some type of structure so it's these future uses that become

1:36:22difficult to near impossible that maybe amenities that we want for either Public Safety or or indoor recreational uses that I have concerns over because the perpetuity is a long time um it's forever so um and so I I would whether it's through the process of identifying some of these

1:36:45potential locations with uh proposed uses or proposed possible uses um I don't want to get a foul of any uh predecisional activities from a secret perspective so that that's why in my mind I'd rather just preserve acreage um and then we can transfer that acreage

1:37:05at some point uh and and therefore not trying to get into identifying things that are pre-decisional and and jeopardize us from a SQL perspective uh on the other hand the City attorney can correct me if I'm wrong but including something as a proposed would not yet would not

1:37:28constitute an action um pursuant to sequa if we were to include something like that on the map no I don't believe so I I mean it's possible yeah I think that that um if there's any issue we just need Clarity from the council tonight that they want um the properties that council member

1:37:47Lyman has identified designated in that way even though there isn't an existing plan or a decision to actually Place anything there that they would want the map submitted to the federal government to reflect a desire on the part of the city to um to potentially use Those portions of

1:38:09those properties for the use for those types of uses and if for clarification purposes I think for the application it would be stronger if we did indicate that it would be it would also be consistent with our own General plan policies that these would still continue to be for

1:38:22recreational uses but that they might include some ancillary structures in support of those uses and Public Safety um certainly I'm not uh proposing that we would sell this off you know for for some private use I'm not reserving that property for that purpose I'm really

1:38:38trying to preserve it for future use as a public space for Public Safety or Recreation yes it would be rezoned in those cases if we were to pursue it to either just to give a kind of land use discussion to it either to the PS zone or PR Zone uh Mark and then I ever come here

1:38:58um I think that if we had money to be building more structures I'd rather put it into existing structures and clubhouses that we have that are in need of upgrading and that to me open space in this case is the highest and best used and I don't have a problem with the

1:39:16word perpetuity because um if our four mothers and forefathers hadn't had the foresight to preserve this space and decades in the past we wouldn't have this beautiful space and the ability to expand it it doesn't come along very often so I'm comfortable with modifying the language to suit council

1:39:40member Lyman as long as it doesn't weaken our application and I guess I I support what you said Mark except I think in my opinion it does what what councilmember Lyman said it does weaken the application and it weakens what um I was what certainly is my personal uh view of

1:40:06what I would like to see the intent to be which that is that it is open space and um to be starting to talk about all the structures that we would want to put on it for whatever use um immediately makes it sound to me like we're not saying we want it to be um exclusively for that use that is I

1:40:33thought the reason we were acquiring the land and the reason certainly I personally was so excited about this was it's a unique opportunity to acquire open space and when I saw those words in perpetuity my concern was that it might not be possible to do that I wanted it to do

1:40:54that because that's the only way I feel comfortable that it um and I wanted to make sure it would stick because I wanted to make sure that we don't just set this all up and then all of a sudden we see a bunch of structures out there and then pretty soon those structures get a different

1:41:13use and pretty soon the whole thing's gone that's I guess what my concern is so I would just as soon it stay the way it is Scott yeah I would just chime in related to councilmember Lyman was saying I think the what we refer to as the East Bay mud property is a little

1:41:30bit different than the other Parcels you're talking about in that it has been graded out and there's a pad and while it it has a lot of its own challenges in terms of being able to use it in terms of if you put anything up there parking and other things it is a little

1:41:45different and I mean I think we would certainly be comfortable with a Parks and Rec designation as opposed to open space designation and we've had all different you can do everything from hitting golf balls to skateboards not that we have anything planned but it

1:42:01it is it is probably one that's a little bit different than the others so that to me is an outdoor use why is that not an outdoor use it is but the designation would be public Recreation instead of open space or it would be pulled out separate if I understand it correctly we

1:42:17could include it and just say uh because that would that would still be public outdoor recreation and we could say proposed proposed more active use which would again be require a zoning change on our own behalf I think the question would become and I think this is what

1:42:30councilmember Lyman is concerned is if we wanted to put any structures to support that use that that might be a challenge so if the council and Brendan from Trust for Public land correct me if you think this isn't um wise but I could see including proposed future active public

1:42:51outdoor active Recreation and and I'll look at the language that WCF or not proposed we could say potential or something because it hasn't been proposed but reserve it for potentially ancillary structures to support a more active use on that level graded property and this might could we

1:43:09could hear from him first a subject to Future decision making as we've talked about but for the purposes of the in perpetuity we could look at what that kind of language would be so could we hear from Brandon on Brendan Moriarty project manager at the trust for public land

1:43:30um I think you don't lose any competitiveness in designating a few very obvious areas as places for potential future recreational enhancements because it's just it's just going to further the objectives of the program which is to create something of public recreational value so to do that

1:43:48with the area that you bought recently from East Bay mud was it um I don't think that's going to harm the competitiveness at all doing that too many times over probably could start to impede the competitiveness where you start to cross the line as anybody's guess uh the

1:44:04sample map and the grand proposal shows one or two different places that are carved out as potential places for uh for improvements recreational improvements so it would seem that that's that's probably pretty standard if they're going to show that there yes you can see in the gray box that's an

1:44:22existing indoor structure and then I can sort of hashbox as a proposed new infrastructure um so they I think what I would caution against is taking out significant acreage entirely not even including it in the boundary map um uh to hold it aside for potential transfer purposes in the future and I do

1:44:43that I'd say that for a couple reasons one is there I think as you do pull the acreage down particularly acreage that would appear from a satellite image or from a site visit to be part of the park shows shows that you are kind of trimming the edges in a more substantive

1:44:57way and and and the acreage that we can report in the grant proposal is going to be that much smaller of course and then finally the transfer process um is uh pretty cumbersome on managing one of those processes now in the city of Novato and it's been going on for a

1:45:13couple years now so I think it's no easier to go to the park service and say you know hey this area that we designated for a potential future Improvement we'd like to now put something there that that could well be easier than to say hey we'd actually like to swap land in and out out to make

1:45:28something available for development Mark yeah um drinking fountains benches picnic tables those are no problem under those are all allowed okay I'd like to move the resolution with the amendment that staff will work with Brendan and Company to craft language as per council

1:45:48member lyman's concerns that will not weaken our application appreciably second okay there is uh do you have any further comments okay and do we have any speaker slopes uh none none other than the two who spoke already okay thank you um so uh motion by uh Mark Friedman

1:46:13seconded by Greg Lyman um and I assume you have all the wording of that um I I actually if you could re-characterize the the sure to ask councilmember Friedman to do that I moved the resolution with the amendment work with the trust for public land to characterize the application to take

1:46:41care to address the concerns of council member Lyman to give us potentiality for recreational enhancements thank you okay um is that going to be able to be interpreted yeah okay okay in really simple terms in simple terms you're going to create a map for the application that meets that intent

1:47:12to clarify to make sure that what I will interpret is what I should be interpreting we are looking at that as just applying right now to the Snowden the end of Snowden correct okay can we substitute language to that effect sure thank you okay are we ready to vote

1:47:28okay all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposition in the abstention motion cares unanimously with that uh thank you for everyone uh on this item I know it's been a lot of work and there's still a ways to go and thank you for doing it um so that will move on to the next item

1:47:52which is the annual Council liaison reorganization and appointments so I have produced a list which net what I think are the criteria of that Council action that changed the process recently and so what I did was make sure to the best of my ability that of the boards commissions and committees

1:48:19nobody had the same assignment um yet everyone had assignments at times when they could attend um have I done that yes yes okay thank you okay and uh outside of that in general I um what I did was uh where it was the mayor I just changed the name and the name of the mayor Pro tem and

1:48:45then everything else I pretty much tried to keep the same as it was before um and um so are there any um concerns with that no no okay okay do we need to vote on this or sort of look like but I know that we did I think you should yeah we should second okay um any more discussion any comments from

1:49:15the public no comments okay all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposition abstentions motion cares unanimously with that we move on to item number eight council local and Regional liaison assignment reports are there any yes yes go ahead uh on your behalf I did go to

1:49:38the solid waste meeting on January 16th uh the solid the regional Solid Waste committee is continuing to consider the future of what the Waste Authority will look like um optimistic news that came out of that was that Richmond is actually thinking about remaining in the authority going

1:50:00forward they've they have been rattling their swords to um to threaten basically they've been threatening to withdraw for about a year um with some of their actions and statements um and it was I would say a fairly optimistic commentary by Mr Bates that suggests that there might be an

1:50:23um a resolution where the committee stays in the hole this comes up in the context of [Music] um if if the if somebody withdraws they want specific language that allows them to divvy up a an account um that that account has 3.8 million dollars in it and uh as much as two and

1:50:46a half million of that could potentially be eligible for division to uh to withdrawing cities it did turn out um in on our behalf I've been uh making sure that uh we have a stake in that uh that account uh many people have said that we don't have a stake in that

1:51:06account because none of our recyclables goes to the uh the the the recycling station and the transfer station and the and the sales however our residents have been paying for the integrated recycling facility for 30 years that Bond was paid off as of the first of this year and for

1:51:29the last 12 years the recycling center has been processing twice what the other communities have been contributing that there has been almost double the amount of volume that's coming from other jurisdictions outside of the the the contributory area of the of the

1:51:50um authority meaning that about half of the income from sales of rev of sales of recycling is a result of our contribution to the construction of the building so we we have um not a large share of this 3.8 million dollars but we do have we have contributed to the facility that uh

1:52:15generated those revenues and so I've been trying to preserve our right to our share of that those funds one of the other things that would be changing is that the county would become become a voting member is one of the things that's under consideration so that that it would be an addition of

1:52:34another voting seat um because the county currently has unrepresented uh citizens that are uh paying into the uh recyclable the recycling funds without representation so that's one of the other changes um otherwise the Waste Authority uh we we do our we um postponed a couple of the contracts

1:53:02waiting for a decision from Richmond so when I come back in February hopefully I'll have more information for you with regards to the future of the Waste Authority thank you Mark do you have any the only um thing I would like to do is to announce that um uh WIC tax recently as I think I may

1:53:22have mentioned before hired a new uh executive director and if everything went as scheduled today was his first day his name is John Nemeth any m-e-t-h and um we're looking forward to a very successful relationship so with that um you and I did attend the Contra Costa

1:53:46County mayor's meeting so I wanted to make sure that that was reported out as well okay I don't remember go ahead I think the speaker was um unremarkable I'm trying to remember who it was uh in our line of work you have to listen to a lot of unremarkable speakers

1:54:11um I'm drawing a blank on who it was but but the most important part is that we were there and and uh and it was uh an unremarkable dinner from La Strada thank you for that report yes excellent report um with that um we uh um we in addition to losing Angela um this has been a pretty sad period of

1:54:42time for us because we also lost uh Ron ingerman who was the first chair of the Environmental Quality committee and I remember when we created the committee we created a seat for business thinking that they ought to have a say in um in their own destiny so to speak but and so

1:55:04uh Ron applied I think as far as I know he's the only business uh leader who who presented himself as a business leader as opposed to a resident and in fact he was not a resident and yet he was uh you know the the leading charge of the eqc I think um and um was uh chair for a number of years

1:55:30and did an excellent job in leading the group through its formative period of time and we lost him um this month last this month and as well as Angela saridis so we are adjourning tonight in memory of those two fine people so if you will join me for a moment of silence please

1:56:06thank you and the next meeting will be on Tuesday February the 4th at 7 00 at City Hall right here thank you [Applause]