City Council Meeting March 18, 2014

0:00:01yeah okay hello good evening everyone welcome to the El Cerrito city council meeting and uh would you uh please um join me in the pledge to Allegiance for a moment of silence pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation

0:00:33under God indivisible with Liberty Mutual justice for all thank you are there any Council Communications right okay um I have a couple um I uh attended the El Cerrito Chamber of Commerce meeting today the speaker was Terry cutsados who's an investment advisor with Edward Jones and he was

0:01:05talking about personal Investments and I thought it would be interesting to just sort of share what he said generically and that was that as the um Market goes up and down you know the value of of a stock or stock portfolio um if you look at it over time at any point

0:01:29in time to any other point in time given like let's say a five-year span or something um you would always do the best if you just held on uh in in a bad time and so really the uh the way to do the best with your portfolio over time is to maintain what you've got

0:01:54assuming you've got a pretty solid type of investment to begin with and so that was pretty interesting and I also went up to Sacramento and um participated in a hearing on the massage issue massage parlor and that was pretty interesting in revealing although as I understand it we

0:02:23don't have that level of problem in our city at the moment there are a number of cities throughout the state of California that are having really serious problems with illicit massage parlors and that are both a front for um illegal sexual activity and also human

0:02:45trafficking and it's and it's pretty severe in some places um and um we there were council members testifying about those cities that were from those cities all over the state and um so they there is a a bill that's um at issue of course which is why they were having the hearing and

0:03:13um it isn't known yet what will happen but they're hoping that there will be some legislation in place at the end of that that will protect the um the victims um and let's see I also went to the mayor's conference and excuse me we had a really interesting presentation

0:03:42by just looking at his name Chuck McFadden who's the author of Trailblazer which is a biography unauthorized biography of Governor Jerry Brown he called it unauthorized um and he's a veteran AP reporter who covered politics in Sacramento for several years so he he really uh

0:04:07talked a lot about what it was like to be um you know in part of the governor Brown environment both before and you know the first time and the second time and so it's kind of interesting insight into our current governor and I think that's all I'll report on mayor I do have one thing to report

0:04:33on Sunday we welcomed I went and represented the city at a ribbon cutting for a brand new dance studio that is opened up in town the Alon dance studio it's at 10512 San Pablo Avenue and they offer dance to all ages um it uh majorly mostly focuses on Zumba and Asian dance but on Saturday nights

0:05:02they have an open Studio that you can drop in on and from I think it's seven o'clock to eight o'clock they have ballroom dancing for couples so just wanted to let you know it was a fantastic event and it's a brand new storefront in in on San Pablo Avenue thank you okay thank you

0:05:25um with that we will see if there's any staff Communications seeing none we will move on to oral Communications from the public on items not on the agenda I have no request to speak wow we're getting by pretty quickly here uh the next item is item number four which is a presentation

0:05:45on Earth hour and um how are we gonna are you going to do the presentation Maria okay good evening Mary elberson and members of the council my name is Maria Sanders and I'm an environmental analyst in the Community Development Department the item before you is a proclamation

0:06:21regarding Earth hour gotta turn it on there you go um Earth this year Earth hour will take place on Saturday March 29th uh between the hour of um 8 30 and 9 30 P.M um Earth hour is an annual event where people from throughout the world turn out their non-essential lights and other

0:06:54types of energy using appliances during that hour to show their support for finding solutions to environmental problems particularly climate change foreign ER is organized by the World Wildlife Fund first the first one happened in Sydney Australia in 2007 the city of uh

0:07:17Sydney participated by turning off um lights on such large marks as the Sydney Opera House and the bridge the Harbor Bay Bridge and the van has grown a lot since 2007 an estimated 1 billion people and 6 500 Community communities and 150 countries have participated

0:07:46and this is the second year that El Cerrito has participated this year just like last year we will be turning off our lights um uh for the city hall Tower as well as other non-essential lights for that um for that hour and um also for the weekend at least for the tower

0:08:06and we'll be encouraging all residents and businesses to participate in Earth hours well and also this year we are receiving we received quite a few requests for um from residents to to ramp up our participation in Earth hour this is part of a a city challenge that

0:08:23worldwide life fund was doing so we have a couple things that we're going to try for Earth hour this year the Environmental Quality committee or eqc is co-sponsoring a Starlight walk in the hillside Natural Area in the north portion of the hillside Natural Area

0:08:41during this um and just prior to the hour we'll meet on the fire road to the north side of the hillside metro area right off of Potrero and there's some flyers in the lobby which describe the event a little bit more in detail um it's going to be an easy Starlet walk

0:09:02that's led by a friend Safari's creeks and then we also have a chance to contribute to a fun citizen science project where we can document light pollution in our area against um the star Maps so there's these really fun little apps that allow you to do that and then also we think of Earth hour as

0:09:24um the kickoff to what I'm calling Earth season there's a lot of environmentally focused fun events scheduled throughout the spring in addition to Earth Day on April 26th we're also planning a showing at the Rialto Theater of Chasing Ice which is an award-winning film on the

0:09:45melting of the Arctic ice cover as well as other glaciers around the world and uh just to not leave people too depressed about climate change we're also planning a couple workshops for homeowners on how to tap into residential Energy Efficiency and solar program to help reduce their carbon

0:10:04footprint and in May we'll be focused more on the outdoors um there's Bike To Work Day on the 8th um Thursday the 8th uh we also will have a workshop on drought resilient homes just in advance of the annual native plants garden tour which is put on by um other another organization

0:10:25and then we also will be working with um uh the open Del Cerrito open space campaign and um the Environmental Quality committee to kind of do a celebration of some the record some of the recreational assets that we have in the city such as the hillside Natural Area and the Ohlone

0:10:44Greenway to celebrate the opening of the Ohlone Greenway so for more informations on these events uh we'll be keeping it up to date on the green El Cerrito portion of our website and finally this is kind of um last minute we just um received world word from the World Wildlife Fund that we won

0:11:05a small Earth hour city challenge Grant to investigate the feasibility of Community Choice aggregation in our community it's a small Grant and so we'll have to work out the details with them um and uh so thank you anyway for hearing this um presentation and considering the proclamation

0:11:26thank you any questions yes um I have one question and that is um as far as the May 1st drought resilient homework shop are there any plans to discuss um laundry to landscape or gray water yeah we're going to be doing um it's going to have two segments to it we'll

0:11:46be talking about Home Improvements that you can do to save water and one of them would be laundry to landscape so we'll have gray water action there talking about that process or that that particular type of improvement as well as other things like water pressure

0:12:04regulators and then East Bay mud will be out to also talk about the drought resilient landscaping and you know just things to think about in irrigation and dealing with um you know keeping your landscape healthy during a drought will that be on the May 1st date yes

0:12:22thank you sure I'll move to motion okay I'd like to move the proclamation instead of proclaiming March 29th between 8 30 and 9 30 PM March 29th to be Earth hour in the city of El Cerrito second any discussion um are there any comments from the public I have no slips okay all in favor

0:12:50please say aye aye aye in the opposition or abstentions motion carries unanimously um with that we will move on to the next item on the agenda which is item five the consent calendar [Applause] I'll move to adopt consent items 5A through 5D my second the motion

0:13:13in the discussion uh hearing none uh any from the public no speakers okay all in favor please say I I in the opposition in the abstention motion carries unanimously and that would be uh item 5A the minutes of March 4th um 5B the adoption of an amendment to the El Cerrito municipal code on

0:13:41bicycles um and 5c proclaiming the month of July as Parkin Recreation month and finally five D which approves the appointment of Nicholas arzio to the crime prevention committee congratulations Nick Nick I see you in the audience um with that we'll move on to item uh

0:14:09seven a which is to prove provide an update and execute a contract with Bay construction company for the Aulani Greenway Natural Area and raid Garden project foreign and council members my name is Yvette Ortiz of the city's Public Works director tonight staff is here to give you an

0:14:52update on the various efforts along the Ohlone Greenway as well as request Council action on the Ohlone Greenway Natural Area and ring Oregon Project oops sorry about that okay so so first I'll give you an update on on the lonely Greenway and then I hand it over to Maria Sanders who I'll

0:15:31talk more specifically about the Natural Area and Rain Garden project and then we'll just open it up to your questions I wanted to go back about five years ago when city council adopted the lonely alone Greenway master plan the council recognized The yoloni Greenway as a primary Transportation

0:15:51Route for non-vehicular modes basically pedestrians and bicyclists and it also recognized The Greenway is used as a recreational facility for various types of recreational activities and its importance as a connection to developments that were adjacent to the greenway the plan identified various

0:16:09goals for the greenway including improved circulation and infrastructure improving Safety and Security maintainability providing more amenities and it also recognized the need for increased stewardship and Community involvement and finally it recognized the need to improve the integration of

0:16:26the greenway to existing and future developments foreign taking a step back to the primary impetus for the development of the greenway master plan was um a Bart earthquake safety program when the city was first contacted back in 2005 we learned that Bart would be retrofitting

0:16:49its aerial structures along the greenway and it would be creating major disruptions to The Greenway that would require restoration of the greenway and so staff saw that as an opportunity to rethink the greenway and get upgrades um to it and so we saw Community input

0:17:06and looked to restore the greenway per current standards and based on community input the first and foremost Improvement that was identified as part of that plan was to reconfigure the trails along the greenway there were separated pedestrian and bicycle trails and based on the feedback

0:17:26that we got it was determined that the best use for the greenway or the best trail configuration was to combine the trail into one wider mixed juice path and the the design that was chosen was a 14 foot wide single multi-use path with a two foot shoulder the general intent

0:17:46was to keep the path in the street alignment to provide good sight lines between first Safety and Security and to keep that path again away from the columns to improve visibility along the trail I just wanted to before sharing some pictures on the birth bar earthquake

0:18:06Safety project we had a lot of recent efforts along the greenway the first big project started back in 2006 before the master plan was adopted but it was the Baxter Creek Ohlone Greenway extension to San Pablo Avenue more recently there was the Bruce King memorial dark Park

0:18:22which was completed in 2010 the LED lighting along the greenway which was completed in 2011 and finally the BART earthquake Safety project which really just um it the construction phase uh occurred between late 2011 to just January of this year so it's a pretty

0:18:40long project and I just wanted to share some pictures here again the the pathway was fully reopened in January we're still working with Bart on some of the um some minor corrective items along the greenway but you'll see some before pictures on the top and after pictures on the bottom

0:18:59we're going to be celebrating the completion and full reopening of the greenway as part of the aloney greenway Fest on fun day that's Maria talked about earlier today which is scheduled for Saturday May 31st I just wanted to quickly touch on some other current and upcoming projects

0:19:18along the greenway Council approved an award of a Construction contract a couple of months ago for the eloni greenway major cross Major Street crossing improvements project that we've been working with the contractor over the last couple of months reviewing their submittals and they're about to

0:19:35break ground next month and that project will be installing implantment flashing lights and roadside lights along Major Street Crossings including Central Stockton Moser Potrero and cutting that project is largely funded by a Federal grant the highway safety Improvement

0:19:53programs Grant we are also in the design phase for the Hill Street and Blake Hill to Blake Street improvements really we're working on the construction of the side path that will connect Hill Street to the Safeway entrance now that bar is done and out of um out of that area we

0:20:12can go ahead and build that side path that will be just east of the uh really it will be located between the Safeway parking lot and the main Ohlone Greenway Trail we're hoping to construct that in the summer of 2014.

0:20:30the next big project on the city also got a grant a Federal grant for the federal program is the one Bay Area grant program and that project is the station area safety access and place making project that project will renovate The Greenway right at the station areas basically the BART project

0:20:51came along and widened or improved the trail along most of its length except for at the stations where that retrofit project did not touch the greenway so this project is building off that effort and going to improve the path within the station area itself as well as create

0:21:07some high visibility pedestrian zones at the streets that are adjacent to the BART stations meaning Fairmont Central Hill and cutting and we'll be coordinating it with the other projects as well and finally the other project on the horizon is the way finding project

0:21:25the city also got Grant funds A CCTA measure J funds to install about 40 wayfinding signs along the greenway and these are oriented for pedestrians and bicyclists and we'll be using the design guidelines from our city-wide program and the uh the more recent West County

0:21:45Transit enhancement project and that project will start design later this year as well I now will um I just want to move on to the Ohlone Natural Area and Rain Garden project a city staff here tonight to answer your questions are Maria Sanders who's the project and Grant and Grant manager

0:22:06Melanie Mintz as well who's back at the back of the room and we had a consultant team assist us with the design and that was um placeworks which is formerly for the Planning Center and their subconsultants a and West fair and Pierce and we also had Avila project

0:22:23management helping us with project management and I'll hand it over to Maria Sanders now thank you thank you in 2011 the CD received Urban Greening project Grant of slightly over 900 000 from the Strategic growth Council the goals of the grant program dovetail nicely with those of our own

0:22:53City goals such as supporting high quality Transit oriented development promoting multi-modal and active Transportation enhancing public facilities and demonstrating environmental leadership and Innovation the timing was good and that it allowed us to Leverage The

0:23:11Investments that were being made on the greenway through the BART retrofit next uh with this project we wanted to create a public place that integrated environmental and Community amenities one of our goals were our goals were first to create a memorable gateway to

0:23:32the Ohlone Greenway and to treat storm water using natural systems such as rain Gardens and bio swells we also wanted to provide spaces for informal nature exploration and Community Gathering since it's a very active area and because there's two Creek segments there

0:23:54we also wanted to spend we wanted to improve the riparian habitat biodiversity and the visual access to the Creeks as well and then we wanted to use it as an educational opportunity by interpreting the ecological functions on the site um in addition we wanted to improve the

0:24:17bicycle and pedestrian amenities at the site and to also demonstrate low maintenance native and drought tolerant Landscaping next almost exactly a year ago we had two Community workshops one to walk the site gather input and get feedback from on the concept and another to get feedback

0:24:41on the designs as they progressed next and um in the interest of time I won't really go into this slide other than to um to say that it represents the analysis that the design team did in order to program the goals of the project into um into the space next and here's the final Design This is the

0:25:10first half of the project area as you enter in from Fairmont Avenue and let's see yes good this works um here's Fairmont Avenue and Bart station and and down here would be the shopping center here's the BART existing Bart tracks and it will remain as is um and it won't um

0:25:31the contractor won't be working working on that area at all um the Gateway this area right here is a gateway kind of Plaza area it will be um uh treated with kind of a seat wall and a main entry element and then it will lead to a decomposed Granite pathway that goes here that's got some benches

0:25:55and then a larger seat wall that overlooks the rain garden and it has elements such as these Play Elements such as Boulders and and Redwood stumps that we've um reclaimed um uh that um uh for kind of to encourage natural play it will also Overlook the um it will this seat wall

0:26:16will be recessed into the um into the hill here and there will be a Nomo native plant um uh um kind of meadow all right that goes up into the hills towards the fences there um so it acts as a buffer to the residential area and then the ringer this whole area right here is the

0:26:36rain garden and it basically treats as much storm water as comes up from the neighborhood up here and down this half of Fairmont Avenue is a large amount of rain water that we'll be able to treat with this rain Garden um uh this area also will include interpretive signage right here that

0:26:58will and do some education on on rain Gardens um west of the Bark Park West of this Bart pathway is more of a Nomo Meadow as well anomo Meadow that will also have these little hillocks here that will basically provide visual interest and will be also kind of a play area as well

0:27:28um and then there's a DG another DG path this is kind of where bicycles can um Park and um there will be a um so there will be bark um bicycle racks there and then um you know this DG path will lead to the proposed stairway area as well as back to the um connect the the um this

0:27:47part of the pathway main Pathway to the BART station so in the agenda Bill we also mentioned um bid alternative a oh sorry if you can go back sorry we mentioned bid alternative a which is the stairway to the shopping center and depending on approval of the shopping center

0:28:05management to do some safety improvements that would be needed in order to have pedestrians access um behind this area the the settlement may or may not be removed from the current construction scope but it is currently in the construction scope but we'll ultimately

0:28:27regardless we'll ultimately be pursuing it through the um during the grant term um and um Miss Sanders can I ask you where that staircase would drop you um it drops you um behind uh the um the kind of the shopping center you can right behind Ross right at the corner

0:28:46behind Ross okay okay um let's see and then um uh so um in the here's the North Fork right here of the um of the um Cerrito Creek and here we'll be relaxing the slopes um and removing invasive plants and planting more native riparian vegetation and we'll also be making it more visible

0:29:12by removing visual barriers and installing um some nice metal railings next here's a drawing of the rain Garden that will be used in the interpretive element and you can see that it's looking towards Fairmont Avenue as through a cross-section of the rain Garden in the

0:29:35background right here this is kind of a visualization of the entry Plaza area and the Gateway sign from the back and this is um and for most of the year the the ring Garden will function as a Dry Creek bed where people of all ages will be allowed to explore as an interpretive and artistic element

0:29:57the seat wall that will be in this area will also be treated with imprints of native plants next before you go too far if I may it the um I think you called it the Nomo grass area is that irrigated uh yes it will be irrigated so so it will be green year round it won't be a

0:30:21fire hazard yes great thank you um and here's the visualization of the Gateway area seat wall that's on Fairmount Avenue so the design elements in uh the mid-block segment of the of the project are a more minimal and this is uh right just to kind of get your bearings this is kind of the tie-in

0:30:48um at the of the main Fork of Cerrito Creek as it kind of moves into the um the shopping center and this is pretty where the um where the proposed daylighting of the creek through the Creekside walk apartment complex is going to be um so in this area we are going to

0:31:08leverage the BART plantings and the irrigation with enhanced drought tolerant irrigation native trees and shrubs the design will be mindful of septed or crime prevention through environmental design principles where the vegetation will um is are chosen to make sure that we

0:31:29maintain good pedestrian sight lines can I ask you a question where is the ramp into the shopping center in this or not it's this one right here that's the ramp and at that place we're going to be removing right now there's some Oleander we did kind of cut it back pretty

0:31:47drastically but it would grow and it's always been you know very it grows pretty high so we're going to be removing that toxic plant yeah it's definitely not a native here so um we're going to be removing that and and doing uh plantings there that are more appropriate and Native

0:32:07um so this area right here as we mentioned in the agenda bill um we'll um we will be doing some enhancements and we've reserved money in the grant funds to do the enhancements at that Creek area but we wanted to make sure that we waited until the timing was better so that we could coordinate with

0:32:25the Creekside walk apartment complex as they do the daylighting for the creek next here's just some examples of the signage and the Furnishings that are similar to those that will be in the project there's wayfinding signs that are consistent with wayfinding signs through

0:32:48that will be throughout the greenway portion there are also we'll be installing as a part of the grant wayfinding signs on the Albany side of the Border as well beyond the main Fork of Sarita Creek and I also wanted to point out this sign right here which is um which seeks to kind of treat the

0:33:09greenway as a like a normal four-way intersection as far as signage is concerned so we'll always say the creek you know the the crossing um like Fairmont Avenue and Ohlone Greenway and what you know as funding allows we're hoping that this will be a template for other intersections

0:33:26throughout the greenway so we are now ready to go to the construction phase or the project uh we put the project out to bid beginning in uh January 27th and uh the bid closed on March 6. we received four bids um all were deemed responsive and the bids range from the mid 500 thousands to the

0:33:52high six hundred thousands with big construction of Oakland being the lowest responsible bidder next and if awarded we expect to execute the contract in April um and have the contractor use April and May to apply for permits and to submit such things as the storm water pollution

0:34:15prevention plan and The Pedestrian safety plan uh construction should begin in May and last through July and fortunately we do expect there will be some closures but they should be fairly brief in that section of the greenway so um so in conclusion let's see uh we are asking Council to

0:34:42adopt the attached resolution approving the plans for the Ohlone Greenway Natural Area and Rain Garden project um to accept um all the submitted bids and to authorize the city manager to execute a contract with Bay construction to construct the project and thank you

0:34:59and we'd be happy to ask answer any questions I have a question about the maybe on the slide you could go back to the Nomo areas so uh is that going to be so no well means no mowing so is that like Fescue or something that's going to grow and yeah and it's a it's similar to the types

0:35:18that we're do that we have in front of the of the police um area so the the public safety building and I'm gonna also um Melanie mince was very in um active um during the design phase of the project and so she may have more details about the project so I'm gonna also um

0:35:36ask her to jump in whenever well it looks like there's probably three or four areas there so those are they'll need to be watered but it's you wouldn't necessarily use drip irrigation there would you would no that that there is a um and event you might want to jump in on

0:35:56this as well but um the the irrigation is there's already um we asked BART to not do irrigation at that time right now because of the work that we're doing but um as a part of negotiations there is going to be irrigation there um and um it's going to be more along the same

0:36:15type of irrigation that we have um in those larger areas um that are currently on other parts of the greenway so it's kind of like sprinklers yeah sort of kind of yeah right okay um and then I I know that we haven't gotten an answer from Regency about the stairs but I actually drove past there

0:36:35and you know the proposed staircase I saw five people climbing down through there I mean it's very active and you know part of the argument is about the loading docks people aren't really walking behind Ross they're walking up towards what I would call the food area

0:36:51of the plaza they're going to Starbucks the video place and then over at a panda and whatever else along that strip so I mean that's really not an argument but I know that they're not here so but I think the staircase is is needed so and people are doing it anyway and um that's

0:37:11one of the reasons why we engaged um the consultant engaged fairs and peers to do the analysis of of um what was happening there I guess the other thing is um you know thank you for what we we actually saw this I don't know back in August or whenever it was and I'm glad that you

0:37:28know we did the value engineering and came in with uh different prices and that was really good so thank you to the staff for doing that yeah thank you for the update on all the projects that are soon to soon to begin very exciting um on the coordination with the

0:37:45apartments are there any other um bits of integration we need to think about other than the creek daylighting like will the location of the potential new apartments have access to the greenway easy access easy pedestrian access Melanie my name is Melanie Manson I'm the cities

0:38:10interim community development director um a couple things during the public Outreach and during the Illinois Greenway master plan we heard repeatedly from residents of both Albany and El Cerrito the need for additional access and as you know or maybe this Council

0:38:25hasn't seen the plans for Creekside the Creekside Apartments will be also installing another access point at the southern end so in that project goes to construction we haven't yet and we're still asking for I think unless Yvette has seen them we haven't seen the creek restoration

0:38:41plan of late we've only seen concept and we haven't seen the exact details of that connection but there will be an additional pedestrian connection there right and I think a bicycle connection but we haven't seen it yet so we aren't planting any very expensive plans in the location will there want to

0:38:56tear that up so no we're coordinating so we kind of Drew a circle in that area while we have plans and that's what per our grant contract we need to get completed we realized the timing was good and the Creekside project looks like it's moving forward so we didn't

0:39:09want to do work that then they would have to undo to create the tie-in to the daylighted creek great and are there any lights being proposed for this project any new light installations the only because we did the LED lighting we didn't add any more it's um but um the only there's solar bricks

0:39:25these cool so solar bricks down at where the the Illinois Greenway master plan also called for this sort of treatment where there's Trail Confluence so I think where you see the decomposed Granite coming in so in the evening you would know maybe there's some cross

0:39:38traffic um we had originally thought bollards but the more research we did they just are difficult from a maintenance standpoint they're a little hazardous for cyclists so we're using solar bricks and then in the Creekside condominium or or Creekside project there is a

0:39:54condition of approval that says that we would evaluate whether the light whether those residents felt like additional supplemental lighting was needed but at this point the LED lights provide pretty good coverage great um and going back to some of the other projects that have been discussed

0:40:10tonight I just wanted to hear an update on if there's anything further on the Hill Street improvements that will connect the BART station to Safeway given what we know about how the pedestrians are getting to the the um this the store in spite of their sign that says please walk all the way down

0:40:28to San Pablo and over to our door do we think that what the improvements that will go in will be enough of an inducement for pedestrians to choose our route versus the very very straight route of just walking through the the parking lot so we're approaching this in

0:40:41two phases first we're going to build this the side path it's a relatively simple side path that's connecting right at the um crosswalk that's at the next to the driveway on Hill Street towards the front of the store but then also as part of the um Ohlone Greenway Station area

0:40:57I'm sorry could you back up and describe where that is I can't figure out what you're saying so so there's the mark crosswalk across Hill right next to the Safeway driveway we're going to be extending a path from that point basically next to the um the curb that's

0:41:16next to the the parking lot and going hugging that curb as much as possible then going slightly uh slightly up um next to the greenway and back towards the front of the Safeway store so it will be on the west side of all of that equipment all of that Bart equipment it'll be through the west of

0:41:37the the substation yes as close as possible to the parking lot as possible great so that's that's the first phase and that's what we're working on right now and hope to go into construction this summer the second phase is part of the Ohlone Greenway Station area Place

0:41:55making project and that project is basically um a 3.5 million dollars of the federal funds and we're providing matching funds from both um Bart measure J Money and um this the Loney the Safeway Ohlone contribution and that that Improvement that set of improvements is going to really try to

0:42:16induce pedestrians to cross at the appropriate crosswalks and instead of like zigzagging across that nurse section and the intent is to channelize both pedestrians bicyclists and vehicles to stay where they're supposed to and so that minimize confusion across that area

0:42:33great thank you that's it for me I have a couple questions um permits everywhere where you're working near or above water I'm certain you need some form of permit from either federal or state agencies um I'm assuming we have all our permits now otherwise you wouldn't have bid it

0:42:54but the question I'm going with is um can we proceed without Creekside I mean we're not relying on any of their permits to implement the Creekside uh improvements correct we have all permits from the Regulatory Agencies at Fish and Wildlife the regional water quality

0:43:11control board and the contractor still has to pull their permit from our the city's permit but we do have those and we're not relying on Creekside for any permits so so we could proceed with the Creekside improvements if for some reason Creekside was delayed or uh if

0:43:29they were delayed correct okay similarly with the stairwell um what's the status of that I mean can do we need approval to install it or we just need the the plaza to do something to make it safer we we do need this although the stairwell itself the stair um the

0:43:52structure would be on city property the Loni Greenway The Landing itself would be right on Regency Property and then um our Consultants have recommended some signing and striping improvements along the side of their Drive aisle and so those all have to go together so we do

0:44:09need a Regency to provide permission for the landing of pedestrians will have to come off the steps onto their landing area and then walk along the drive aisle well I would like to maybe suggest a different approach we could build it and then put tape across the stairwell

0:44:26correct and prevent them from using it saying it's closed I mean because what's going to happen is your contract is going to expire before you ever get Regency to approve and so I'm just trying to figure out how you would potentially install this without uh without necessarily waiting for

0:44:41Regency who's going to drag their heels on this and I appreciate the question and hopefully our City attorney can help us with that [Laughter] part of the concern is that um we'd be directing pedestrians into a situation that we would have reason to know might not be safe and we wouldn't

0:44:59want to um basically be creating a potentially dangerous but we can we can we if we build it any things that have been built and closed immediately I think though I mean we need to look more closely at whether or what potential liability there would be for for creating that

0:45:16situation if we had reason to believe that people would simply be ignoring um the tape or the the Rope or the chain across the end of the stairs okay um and finally I do want to acknowledge that uh you were very economically conscious and did decide not to use alternative B uh with in this contract

0:45:37so we are in the process obviously of of uh trying to stay within the budget so thank you thank you for an excellent report I'm very interested in bicycle and pedestrian safety particularly crossing the arterials and uh can you explain how the flashing lights will be triggered

0:45:59it's that require pushing a button or so it's going to have both pedestrian activation and activation for pedestrians and bicyclists the lights will be triggered by pedestrians using bollards right at the lonely Greenway Crossing similar to what you see on San Pablo Avenue at Madison

0:46:19in front of the post office and at Lincoln and the bicycles would be detected by Loop detectors in the pavement along the greenway and so where um the last couple months we've been working with the contractor and their equipment manufacturers to approve their submittals on because

0:46:38that's basically the key element of the system we want to get it right sounds great thanks I have a couple of questions one is related to the uh in pavement lights and the choice of the locations and I noticed you didn't choose Fairmont which surprised me because there's a visibility problem

0:46:58with the um post from the um art struct columns from the BART structure um which provides a visibility problem for pedestrians Crossing there and there are a lot of pedestrians Crossing there um you know especially going to the plaza so could you explain that first of

0:47:22all so the Fairmont Avenue has two ones that's come so um flashing lights are not an appropriate treatment at intersections that are fully controlled by a stop sign but we had initially intended to put the lights at the crosswalk that's not controlled which is the one to the west

0:47:40and it just we didn't have enough funding for it it's one of it was a bit alternate um we had to re-bid this project because the original bids came in too high and that was one of the locations that fell out but it fell out because we do have this other project

0:47:54that's coming along the the obac project the one Bay Area Grant project that will be improving um the crosswalks that location in what way we're going to be using specialized like special pavement treatments to highlight that that's a crossing and then um providing other elements we're still

0:48:16working on the design but providing elements to highlight that that's a major pedestrian Crossing and to provide visual cues to drivers to slow down in that area but this it seems to me the issue there is that you can't see The Pedestrian because of the ballot the

0:48:35post there post is that the right word post column column excuse me um and um so it seems to me not a whole lot will help except and I know there was a previous attempt to make it more visible but um that whole area it just it seems like such a safety okay and we'll definitely

0:48:59take a closer look at that Crossing as part of the design effort for that that project and I mean the thing is that you picked all those other ones rather than this one too that's what I didn't um why this one which has that really obvious problem uh wasn't picked over some other one of

0:49:19the others that were picked in the primary thinking behind that was because we did have a project with another open source coming along still have an opportunity to improve that Crossing yeah but the impavement lights the thing that at least appeals to me in my um Layman

0:49:36Layman's way is that the flashing lights could start flash be flashing when The Pedestrian is behind that post and it's not to say that we can't do them as part of this project that's coming forward and we'll explore that as we as part of the design process and if it's it if it

0:49:57is the most appropriate treatment we can propose it okay um the other question I have is about water and there's uh two parts there's two parts to it one is that when it rains I've noticed that it a lake still forms um along Fairmont on the south side um east of the pathway

0:50:26and this is the area or at least it's close to the area where you're proposing the rain Garden and um so I have a well multi-parts here first of all is there still supposed to be alike so you're uh is all the work depending on the path itself or just just east of

0:50:47the path uh it's just east of the path so this project the Ohlone green or natural area and bring Garden project will be looking at the drainage at for that whole area and improving it that that area is part of the rain Garden area that will be constructed as part of

0:51:02the project so does that mean that the um Lake will go away yes well The Accidental Lake will have a rain Garden in other other Target will be a rain Garden one of the things a rain Garden does is we'll have two feet of a variety of types of soil that actually are intended to drain a lot

0:51:20more quickly so it's creating both more capacity and faster drain so it should drain quick it should drink quicker in addition we're creating an overflow that so if it gets actually higher than a certain amount it'll go back into the storm drain so as um that said it should attenuate the

0:51:36situation and the good thing is we do know that's where the water is going so we'll be able to now clean it before it goes back into the storm drain okay great and then the other question I had was about the um the DG I believe it's called the uh DG path right next to the

0:51:53asphalt path that um every time these the sprinklers get turned on is getting watered a lot and then some sort of attire will go over it either a bike tire or a vehicle Tire and it becomes a whole you know recessed hole and um so it's just it doesn't seem like it's

0:52:18working very well there and I have gone along other sections of the greenway where that doesn't seem to be a problem but along there for some reason okay it just doesn't seem to be uh working and how could anyone say run on that when you've got you know standing water in

0:52:38these recessed areas and um it isn't level one it's no longer it isn't level so we're working with Bart on those over watering issues they're still responsible um for making sure that the irrigation works properly we're bringing any problem spots to their attention and

0:52:55we're currently working with them to resolve those so will that include um redoing the DG that's what we're discussing with them okay asking them to repair and regarding the rain Garden project um the DG that's going to be there is going to be stabilized DG so it's um

0:53:13going to be treated uh so that it's hard and that there won't be any erosion issues is so is the lack thereof what's wrong with the other part uh yeah but it does at that point become impervious and it also becomes um pretty much as hard as concrete and the whole

0:53:30point of the DG path was to have a soft Landing for joggers then I have a silly question I guess but it's not I don't think it's two feet wide is it it's yes it is it is okay I don't see how a person could be jogging one way and jogging the other way at the same time in that space

0:53:50a good point and initially with the the master plan was intended to have a DG shoulders on both sides of the greenway but in order to preserve some of the mature trees along the path we decided to just do the the Tupa shoulder on one side of the path so that negates the

0:54:07ability to do that the jogging I mean people just have to be a little bit more careful when they're run across each other but yeah they should still be able to use a funny expression what was it you said run across each other um anyway it it so it's really it um

0:54:25even if it were only part of the time it would seem like it would be good to I guess it's too late now and then I'll ask my final question I while I was out on the greenway today I um wasn't I was doing it actually to move around not actually because of this agenda item and I was at the north end

0:54:43of town but I was south of um Potrero uh headed to the Chamber of Commerce luncheon and um I I noticed that the pathways it looks to me like nothing happened it even looks like nothing happened in terms of seismic retrofit in those columns there underneath the BART tracks

0:55:07it looks like nothing happened at all they did they did retrofit those columns and and improved the pathways there's two path there's um directional Pathways there because we just couldn't but we couldn't build a wider path because it's so constrained there so we did a rebuild

0:55:23um two paths they're supposed to be directional okay but it also looked like they didn't do any seismic work but they did okay I'll take your word for it just close for months you're the expert thank you thank you so do we have any uh speaker slips we have two speakers okay

0:55:41uh Al Miller followed by Nicholas arzio l Miller [address removed] good evening mayor Abelson council members uh very pleased to hear the questions on the stairs uh because I think you'll be hearing about that area for a long time uh everybody is clear this is the area

0:56:05that if you're coming in on Liberty you get right to the stop sign where the crosswalk is you turn left and you head east and pretty soon you're up at the intersection if you turned right you could get down to Lucky's if you were walking left you'd get into the video

0:56:22shop if you drive straight ahead in that rather Narrow Street you go all the way alongside a Ross now you're in the back of the shopping area and you turn right and pretty soon you're at the uh recycle center but it's right as you get back to the end of the Ross building and

0:56:41you turn right is the area where the stairs going to be now if you have any questions on the necessity of the stairs please go down there and walk the area because there is an eroded rather steep Hillside right at the edge of the back of the car gas station people are coming

0:57:00down there the last step down to the pavement is about two feet or you'll see especially the younger generation walking along the retaining wall behind the gas station property and it's about a eight foot wall and every 20 feet or so it steps down a foot and down a foot

0:57:19and pretty soon they'll jump down onto the street so just as safe access from the BART area down to the shopping center area the stairs will solve that the big problem that I'm afraid of is that that rat street that is not even as wide as a normal City street is my

0:57:41memory tells me the main access route into the Creekside property once they get delivered or developed and I know there was a requirement that they do explore other routes in there too but there's no marking for any pedestrian access on that street there's no divisional markings in the street back

0:58:03behind the shopping center there's some Lane arrows but there's no demarcation of which direction should be going where people seem to think that's a challenge for them to see how far they fast they can get through there that's my experience when I've been walking

0:58:20through there up the step wall and onto the bark path the other comment quickly is down in the area where there is this Ada ramp near where the recycling center is it goes up the hill and then makes about 120 degree turn to go back the other way uh I don't know if that's designed that

0:58:41way to slow it down but it's really difficult to walk a bicycle up there and then make that turn to go up the other way if there's any way you could make a why out of that so you didn't have to make that turn or make the middle of the Y A little wider so it's easier to turn

0:58:59that would be a big help too thank you Nick arzia hi I'm Nick arzio [address removed] I had a couple of questions about the greenway Natural Area as it regards to the crime prevention I heard that there's going to be some limitation on the height of vegetation

0:59:27in that area as a crime prevention measure that's been an issue lately both tall vegetation and uh perceived lack of lighting as possibly aiding uh assaults and other crimes on the on the greenway so I'm glad to hear that they're going to be restricting the height of vegetation in the in the

0:59:47Natural Area and I also support the idea of some supplemental lighting to uh to make it more secure and also to guard against an increasing graffiti thank you no other speak no other speakers okay thank you um so um back to the agenda uh this is a um item which needs

1:00:14a vote correct okay [Applause] resolution of the city council of El Cerrito uh the city of El Cerrito approving plans for the Ohlone Greenway Natural Area and Rain Garden Project c3067-1 accepting all submitted bids and authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Bay construction company

1:00:35in an amount not to exceed 592 918 dollars and 32 cents and to approve change orders in an additional amount not to exceed fifty nine thousand two hundred and ninety two dollars to construct the project second okay there's been a motion by Lyman seconded by Friedman on any further discussion

1:00:57can I just comment that I'm I'm I would just wanted to support council member live in statements about the staircase that we should explore all options that we have in order to put it in during this project okay thank you um any other comments okay all in favor

1:01:14please say aye aye in the opposition any abstentions motion cares unanimously with that we will move on to item 7B which is the mid-year budget update [Applause] foreign by the way while we're getting set up I would like to thank the staff that just presented on the last item there were a

1:01:56lot of uh moving parts to that last agenda item and I think you did a great job of putting it together thank you good evening mayor and Council I'm Lisa Malik Sade Finance director and at the table I have Lori Trevino she's our senior financial analyst in the finance

1:02:14department yeah and tonight we wanted to give you an update on the mid-air budget these are some changes that have occurred since the last update we gave you on December 17th we also wanted to discuss some proposed changes in our spending Authority and ask Council to adopt that

1:02:33resolution and then start the discussions around next year's budget for 14 and 15 and kind of give you an overview some of the things we've talked about in terms of realities that we face next year we're also going to just give you a sort of a brief update on some of the steps we've

1:02:48already taken with some community community meetings and Karen's going to talk about that and then just our next steps and sort of a calendar of events for the budget um I did want to note just on some of the numbers before we get into them we did find a few typos so I apologize

1:03:05um and we will make sure that those get caught in the future before you see the report so the numbers that will be up there tonight um are actually the correct number so I just wanted to note that um okay so you know fairly good news in that there are not a whole lot of changes to the

1:03:22budget since we talked to you last in December um we have had a few things change but nothing really significant um we wanted to also just give you an update on some of the revenue issues so not a whole lot of changes in the numbers but we did want to give you an

1:03:37update of some of the things that we've talked about in the past the property tax sales tax and the utility users tax and as well as some of uh changes in our assumptions around personnel okay so this is a slide you've seen several times at this point this is basically just an overview of our

1:03:57general fund uh very high level looking at our fund balance our total revenues expenses and then essentially our annual shortfall the difference between our revenues in the fiscal year and our expenditures some of our one-time expenses which you see on the grants and

1:04:15solar CIP these are transfers and then of course our ending Reserve balance which we've talked a bit about in the last several months so really the only significant change here is and we'll talk a little bit more about what those changes are but we did want to point out

1:04:31as we talked about in the agenda bill is that our fund balance percentage or ending Reserve essentially is changing slightly from we originally projected it to be about six percent and we project now it'll be about five percent so not a huge change but we did want to note that

1:04:47and with that I'm going to turn over to Lori and she's going to talk to you a bit about the revenue so we wanted to go through each of the of the major tax revenue sources and talk about what the changes are that we're seeing now that we've gotten halfway through the year

1:05:12um in regards to property tax we have reduced our projection from of what we think our we will receive in property taxes from the a budget that was adopted for the current fiscal year um the um the the amount that we projected in the budget uh when we were adopting the

1:05:34budget in the spring was estimated prior to receiving assessed value information from the county and so we did um over budget somewhat and we've reduced that based on what we now know to be the assessed values um and um projected collection by the county I did want to point out though

1:05:52that while that while it's a reduction from what we adopted in the budget it is an increase in in Revenue property tax revenue from last fiscal year and there were several questions about how this is how property taxes are calculated and I wanted to to note that although we do

1:06:11see a growth in the real estate market right now there's um there's a strong real estate market the changes in assessed value that we would we see today will not affect our property tax revenues for anywhere from 6 to 18 months because is it's based on the assessed value of the January 1st prior

1:06:34to the fiscal year so the revenues that we're receiving this fiscal year are based on values of sales that happen during calendar year 2012.

1:06:44regarding sales tax as you recall in December we had projected that we um we would we had protect projected um that the Board of Equalization would be making some adjustments to our sales tax revenue due to some misallocations that were made by Home Depot in terms of

1:07:07sales tax revenues that they had collected in the meantime we have um we have requested and received an extension from the Board of Equalization to review their numbers through the end of April so the current projection is based on what we know today about retail

1:07:29sales retail sales are up Statewide and that is um has resulted in an increase in sales tax revenue projections for the current fiscal year and we um have assumed that we will make a one-time payment to Richmond for what we believe is their share of of the Home Depot

1:07:49money so that so the projection has been reduced by that amount there is still a liability for prior years misallocations that we will need to deal with but that will happen in future fiscal years Excuse me yes so when you say the projection are you talking about the

1:08:07final column or are you talking about the third column which is actually lower than the final column final final column so so when you say that you've adjusted the sales tax for a payment to Richmond it's higher than what the proposed amended number is is that correct the

1:08:28reason is because sales tax projections in general have just gone up so so much um it it overwhelmed the the reduction that we made to account for the one-time payment to Richmond but the resolution that we're considering tonight is the third column is that correct

1:08:47essentially except that you're not really changing the revenues where it's really the expenditure Authority but essentially yes that would be the equivalent the third column okay thank you and you know the sales tax increase actually occurred and I think we noted it in the

1:09:03December uh report the sales tax was actually doing better but we weren't really reflecting that in the projections the full benefit of that because we anticipated the Board of Equalization taking some of that payment that has now been removed so we actually get to realize the full extent of those

1:09:20increased revenues so um as I was saying that we will we will need we are anticipating that we will need to reserve funds in future fiscal years to account for the fact that we will lose some sales tax for any adjustments that are made or payments that we need to make to to the city of

1:09:38Richmond for that prior Year's liability um other tax revenues um oh excuse me utility users tax first I wanted to note that um there were lots of questions about utility users techs um and so we have are planning to do a study session on utility users tax during May so um we'll

1:10:00go into more detail then um I did want to um say that based on our analysis and looking at the first seven months of the year we are projecting that there will be an increase that there's an increase over last year's revenues which is what we had budgeted so we're keeping the

1:10:20number at what the adopted budget was um for utility users tax um there is an increase in other tax revenues that I wanted to point out and that is um an increase in franchise fees of sixty seven thousand dollars which is to cover Sweet street sweeping expenses

1:10:37that are also budgeted to increase in the general fund and um intergovernmental revenues are increasing by the amount of the OES reimbursement of 187 thousand dollars and also a hundred and ten thousand dollar increase in the rental housing inspection fees are projected and that shows up in the

1:11:00charges for service and back on okay if you can advance to the expositors okay so this is a slide again just kind of focused on the expenditures this slide sort of ties into the next and sort of what you're just discussing in terms of the proposed amendments for

1:11:32this fiscal year so there are changes that occur during the fiscal year where we need additional expenditure Authority and those are for things that Lori actually just mentioned some of the things that are covered by Revenue such as the OES expenses we have some

1:11:48contract changes for street sweeping for example we have some changes in our transfers out which is for a grant match that will be transferred into our grants fund essentially to cover a match so this this is essentially showing you the changes that we're proposing to the

1:12:06budget expenditure Authority that's the third column which is called amended proposed and then the assumptions that we'll actually spend by year end Personnel you have wanted to note in December we projected our Personnel we would have salary savings close to 300

1:12:22000 we are now projecting that those will be closer to about a hundred and forty thousand dollars and that's because we've had more overtime costs due to our vacancies and other issues um that have sort of eaten into those savings that we originally anticipated

1:12:36so I did want to point that out which of the numbers where is the difference where is the 140 000 difference it's essentially between the projection uh I'm sorry in the proposed um corrected that column to what we're actually projecting should be reflected in there I believe thank you

1:13:00and to be clear you've you've changed the slide from our handout so anyone who is looking at uh the the agenda packet should note that the transfer out number has gone up by about sixty thousand dollars over the version that was handed uh out in the agenda packet correct and

1:13:20that essentially there was an expenditure for a grant match for a FEMA grant that we have that was picked up in the resolution that unfortunately did not get included here so that's what that correction is would that have gone into the subtotal called total non-personnel

1:13:37yes okay so we do need to correct those numbers before we adopt um these numbers are correct the resolution is correct correct reflected actually in this chart okay you're right sorry I apologize so moving on to um the proposed amendments which we've just been talking

1:13:56about again this is a change that occurs throughout the fiscal year where we may need more expenditure authority to do some of the things we've talked about the majority of the changes that we talked about within um for example the general fund have actually do have Revenue offsets

1:14:14um so we're proposing excuse me change to the general fund of about 1.5 million dollars over a million dollars of this is actually a transfer of part of our restricted fund balance that was specifically set aside to finish our solar project as well as a transfer from

1:14:30a grant that was received by the MSC and this is being used to fund one-time Economic Development activities we have a few contract changes the street sweeping changes that Laurie referred to as well some of the other funds we have this asset seizure this is for police

1:14:48equipment the street Improvement fund as well as the funds under Capital Improvements the majority of these are streets related projects that were entered in started last year that were not completed so this is the expenditure Authority essentially to finish those

1:15:05projects and they were unspent funds in last fiscal year um and then the there's a amendment of about three point close to 3.4 million dollars in the housing fund and this is for a grant essentially that was several years ago I want to say about an agreement it's for the prop once 1C Grant uh for

1:15:31the Ohlone Gardens project which we're asked acting as a fiduciary agent and inside that 3.4 million there was also a 531 152 dollar number that's this is my chance to jab at the state it's in our it's in our recognizable obligations payment schedule but that they they have

1:15:51not necessarily recognized it is that correct no that those funds have been recognized and and they were distributed on the last drops from the last drops and so um now we're able to fund those those are those were loan obligations to the Ohlone um Gardens project and the Eden Project

1:16:10um so those are funds that will be paid um through through uh tax def you know through the roths payment schedule yes and we and we have the housing fund has received those that revenue and now needs the authority to spend it great thank you could I ask before you move on from this

1:16:29slide um I don't understand the general fund amended appropriations of 29.9 million dollars I don't understand why that number doesn't show up on the prior slide the expense on the expenditure yeah so it's actually a combination um this slide is actually looking at the

1:16:50um what's excluded from this essentially is the one-time transfer of about a million dollars it shows up these are more of our ongoing annual expenses that are reflected in this slide so there's about a million dollars of one-time money that shows up on the expenditure

1:17:06Authority that doesn't show up under this slide okay so that's the majority thanks okay so we're gonna move on and just talk a little bit about um next fiscal year and some of the realities that we are facing things are very preliminary at this point um but there are a few things that we

1:17:28know we're facing and we need to start talking about some of those things we know that our revenue is the revenue growth is very limited although we're seeing you know a strong Market real estate market strong sales those things are not anticipated to grow significantly so that's something we

1:17:45have to address we also have been using one-time funding as you know to offset some of the loss of our Redevelopment funds that will end next fiscal year uh three out of our four labor union contracts are expiring have either expired or are expiring so we'll enter

1:18:01into negotiations with those groups we're also just as we've seen in Prior fiscal years looking at double-digit Health increases um in our in our rates for our health costs and our Purge rates and pers just recently adopted um a set of assumptions I believe that

1:18:19start in 2016 about five years those are going to be significant increases for us that we'll have to address and so with all of that at this point again very preliminary we're looking at probably needing balancing measures somewhere in the range of a million to a million five

1:18:37and as we start those discussions and kind of face some of these realities these are some of the priorities we've talked about in the past and these are the things that we're going to keep in mind as we develop budget proposals um some of those things are we really

1:18:49want to increase our community engagement and we've started that um sort of down that path and Karen will talk about that in just a second we want to make sure that we're really aligning the budget and our resources in line with the Strategic plan the goals that

1:19:04were adopted we also want to make sure that our expenses are ongoing expenses are balanced with ongoing revenues and you know eliminate that need for dependence on the one-time one-time revenues to fund those ongoing expenses we've talked about increasing our reserves we've used

1:19:21those quite a bit to help sort of offset these bumpy times but that time is we've got to get back to increasing those reserves so that's a huge priority for next year and then we also want to look not chill just next year but also in the out years and looking at some measures

1:19:36perhaps for new Revenue as well as ways we can reduce expenses not just next year again but in the long term and with that I'm going to turn it to Karen sure thank you I'm Karen Pinkus assistant city manager and um the pictures you see there are pictures that we took at the two Community meetings

1:19:57that we've held so far um last Thursday at um Harding School and Saturday at Arlington park and we did have a small um small group of people that attended but very dedicated and to those of you in the audience who were there thank you for coming also mayor Abelson was at the

1:20:17first meeting they were um the meetings were intended to try to allow the residents to provide us with feedback and what we were able to do was give a presentation that was a bit of a budget 101 kind of a broad overview of what the budget was we had a budget activity which was intended to have the

1:20:39residents help us align uh some budget Resources with our strategic plan goals as Lisa had indicated that's our biggest focus is making sure that what we've all the work we've done with the Strategic plan in the community over time that we are fulfilling those goals and that we are

1:20:56on the path to doing so but needing to recognize that we do have limited resources so how we align those goals and how we prioritize those goals with some of the feedback we're trying to gain from the community and then we had a brainstorming session to discuss as

1:21:11Lisa had pointed out some of the balancing measures that we're thinking of taking was there anything that was brought to mind and you know one of the things that we we realized as staff is that we know a lot more detail than we believe we could present to Residents

1:21:30within an hour and a half so it was a very interesting sort of big picture discussion but we got some wonderful feedback so far and we're looking forward to the two upcoming Community meetings uh as you see the dates there 25th March 25th at the senior center and

1:21:45March 31st at Canyon Trail these were again intended to go throughout the neighborhoods as opposed to making everybody come to City Hall we do that a lot and so we wanted to get out into neighborhoods and make it more convenient for people one of the wonderful things that I saw

1:22:01was at each of the meetings we had a couple of parents there that had their kids either in the meeting with them or around while they were in the meeting so it was really neat to sort of know that there were children that were being exposed to being Civic minded and

1:22:14Community budgeting so the political geek in me was very excited about that at any rate so we are also going to have an online Forum we will be hopefully implementing that within the next week or two we're working on uh developing a budget activity that mirrors the budget

1:22:31activity that we're doing in person where we are we are have the participant allocate some resources according to the Strategic plan goals so that we can continue to get feedback and priorities and so we will be collecting that feedback continuously throughout the

1:22:48month of March and as noted in your agenda bill that we are planning on having a priority setting session with with you uh in April the second council meeting of April and so we will be able to present a lot of the feedback that we have received at that point which we

1:23:05will be taking into consideration as we develop our proposals for the budget in our departments thanks and just to things we've talked about um in previous updates so again we have two we've started the community meetings but we have two more as Karen just mentioned

1:23:30we have one on the 25th and one on the 31st between sort of now and April we are working on developing the budget and some of the proposals that I'll come forward to Council on April 22nd as Karen just mentioned that we're planning to have a budget go ahead I just want to

1:23:49make sure the agenda Bill actually says April 15th tax day and so how fitting for this discussion I think our second meeting is actually on April 15th so I want to make sure you um plan accordingly on your next agenda and we discuss this with the mayor that the meeting falls on

1:24:07the first night of passover so we talk about moving the meeting from the 15th to the 22nd and we didn't obviously discuss it with everyone uh second meeting of April whenever that is second meeting of April got it it could be April 30th yes so sorry about that um at some point at the end of April

1:24:31we'll have that discussion we'll also be talking about the proposed Master Fee schedule at that same meeting whenever that occurs um and then as Laurie mentioned we we because we have gotten a lot of questions around the UT we thought it would be a good idea to just do some

1:24:46focused um discussion around the uut so that we can sort of all be you know up to date on what's going on and sort of address some of those issues that we've been talking about for the last couple of months and then in between sometime between May and June we'll present the

1:25:01proposed budget probably have some discussions and then by June 30th have the budget adopted hopefully and so with that open it up to any other questions starting on the other side here mark not right now Greg I asked most of my questions uh during during your presentation I thank

1:25:22you for uh answering them um the the one that that uh sort of I didn't ask and I'm not sure that there's a a great way to ask this but since our December presentation there's there's been a change in in the projected expenditures and I was just wondering if if you had a quick summary of what those

1:25:44changes are so that we could get a sense of what new information we've gained since December that has allowed you to refine the numbers and present tonight so it's just a quick summary of what new information you got and and and where the changes were what major items were

1:26:02changed so on the expenditure side really the main changes um one on the Personnel side it's the OES expenditure so we changed that and then of course we talked about the overtime increasing over what we thought in December because of our ongoing vacancies so that's the most significant

1:26:21on the Personnel side on the non-personnel side again it's some of the things like our contracts we have an increase for our rental inspection contract we have the addition of the street sweeping expenses which are both of those are actually offset by new Revenue

1:26:38um I don't want to say those are probably the main we had some fee increases on our bank fees and things like that we also have the match the grant match um which increased our overall expenditures but I think those were sort of the significant changes great thank

1:26:55you just a couple questions thank you um on the budget calendar it was there during one of the sessions going to be a discussion of uh the uh the CIP yes that is on our calendar and actually we should have included I don't know how or is it during one of the other

1:27:13sessions day we can usually address the CIP during the main we're doing a budget a CIP session I just don't recall it okay I think it's one of the dates in May it looks like Yvette might know thank you yes I should we shouldn't put that on here also Basics we'll add that

1:27:37to the calendar thank you and just a comment on the um online budget survey that's going to be up soon I hope that you'll be able to allow the deadline to go past March 31st since it's foreign at least through the budget uh the um proposed budget presentation great thank

1:27:58you that's it Jan I think I asked most of my questions on the email but um just a couple comments about the property tax and sales it seems like our sales are up I mean maybe not to where they were in 2008 but if we're seeing a lag of 6 to 18 months hopefully that you know some

1:28:15of our property tax numbers will change a little bit and as far as the Home Depot um you know this has been an ongoing problem for longer than probably even Mr Friedman down there was on Council um and I from what I understand we're going to meet with Boe and try to

1:28:33straighten this out once and for all and come up with a better resolution so we don't have to face this every couple years yeah that's our intent to actually kind of get a rut and we've been talking about what the best strategy is and at this point our plan is to make sure that

1:28:47we have the right numbers and that we're reconciled and we understand boe's methodology we're in agreement and then kind of move forward with again like a one-time clean it up everything is clear and this is how we move forward so I don't know I guess it's not particularly

1:29:02clear how Home Depot is going about this either and if it's that store corporate level I mean I we don't really even yeah just know that um and then yeah we definitely need to look for um some measures to increase our Revenue so that we don't uh continue to get

1:29:20grabs and all these things affecting us so so drastically and then I personally I'm looking forward to the uut thing because I think with the changing environment with uh cable services and people changing the way they are doing their self-serve cell service contracts that some of that's

1:29:39not um you can't get any money from on the uut for some of the changes that are happening in that Marketplace so I think some of us don't really understand too much about that me being one of them so I'm looking forward to that so thank you all right a follow-up okay Mark

1:29:58um from my experience with the Board of Equalization they're not very easy people to deal with and I would recommend that we talk to our state representatives about this if we haven't already and they might be able to help the process move along and might even need a minor legislative fix at some

1:30:18point too I will say they've actually been um pretty easy to work with on this I mean they're pretty understanding and that this is a complicated issue and they have made some decisions and changes that has made it a little bit difficult for us so they've actually been working

1:30:36with us really um easily Laurie's been working with them she could probably talk about it but I must have the Magic Touch the key was just figuring out how to get the data from them which took yeah six weeks and once we got the data we can now see that I I'm starting to

1:30:55see where some of the problem has developed and really this has to do with the way that Home Depot is filling out their tax returns and I don't know where that's done but I suspect it's um somewhere in another state so we are probably um you know dealing with just lack of

1:31:13understanding about how the how this was originally supposed to work so do we have a sense of how far back in time the problem goes yes it it goes back um to uh 2008 um when measure a was passed and that was when the confusion seems to have started so how many years

1:31:41so if we right now are dealing with one year right uh well here is which how many years do we have to still deal with so I'm really wondering it's it's a little more complicated than that Boe wants to deal with the problem going back to 2008 we've already been the city of Richmond

1:32:05and El Cerrito have already been resolving this on a on an annual basis and so the problem is that we've already addressed a lot of the the problem ourselves but Boe isn't recognizing that um so that's that's the difficulty that we're having is they want to they want

1:32:22to do a fix based on their calculation and our calculation based on an agreement has already been implemented and so we have to get them to either recognize that agreement or or come up with some way of reconciling it that works for Boe further behind um discrepancy kind of between what we

1:32:49should be paying and what we are paying but it's not you know millions of dollars that we're basically we are making annual payments to Richmond so we're sort of keeping up essentially and not building that liability any further okay thank you any further questions uh do we have any

1:33:07comments from the public I have no requests okay is there a motion yeah I'd like to move the resolution of the city council amending the spending Authority by fund for the city of El Cerrito for fiscal year 2013-14 second the motion okay there's been a motion uh by Friedman seconded by

1:33:27benicini all in favor please say aye aye in the opposition in the abstention motion cares unanimously and with that we will go to council local and Regional Regional uh assignment reports the waste management board met uh last week and uh took up several matters

1:33:55um the regarding the future of the agency Richmond is scheduled tonight to vote on their post collection agreement which does goes a long ways towards uh getting post-collection services for all four cities other than El Cerrito we already have some of the services like weekly

1:34:22green waste pickup and and food waste commingled with green waste we already have those Services those services are not being provided to our fellow County residents Regional residents it was something that has been negotiated with their service provider however

1:34:43they're waiting for the last City to approve the post collection agreement and then it will go into place and that's supposed to happen tonight we did also agree that we need to look at the Staffing levels and staff compensation in this time where it appears that the

1:35:05staff the um recycle more uh the agency that that is the regional Agency for our five cities and the uh portion of the county that's in our jurisdiction we're in the process of uh evaluating what the proper staff level is what their retention pay might be and what their Severance uh pay would

1:35:28be as we modify their job descriptions so we are in the process of looking at that uh that that process um as a result of of all of this that's going on um the city manager and I and Alternate Friedman still need to have a conversation but um there is certainly

1:35:54um you know we're not we're we're not necessarily served by this Regional organization quite as much as we would like so um we're trying to figure out if our commitment to stay in this group uh that you've heard me make many times over the last three years uh is something that we

1:36:13need to reconsider so that's that's uh my way of saying that we've had a meeting with the Waste Management Authority this last part was not discussed with them at all but it is something that we're internally considering um I Heard a little story about that meeting also oh yeah which one the one

1:36:35that said that you were elected chair no Vice chair Vice chair oh okay my birthday information was incorrect I I abstained on that elect on that vote well Karen congratulations for being Vice chair I nominated somebody else but they you know they declined so Mark do you have anything I know okay

1:36:59um with that we are adjourned until our next meeting on April the 1st thank you all for coming