City Council Meeting May 6, 2014

0:00:04ready good evening everyone welcome to the El Cerrito city council meeting and we will begin first of all I would like to Ann announce that we just had a meeting of where we interviewed somebody and we did make an appointment and um uh we appointed George cager to the arts

0:00:43and culture Commission the um so now we will go formally into this meeting and we will start out with the Pledge of Allegiance or observation of a moment of silence led by mayor Pro Tem benezini please join me or take a moment I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United

0:01:06States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign next on the agenda is an opportunity for council members to do any Communications that they wish to I have one announcement on Thursday May

0:01:331st I attended our city sponsored um dark resilient home Workshop that was free to our residents right here in City Hall it was a very informative discussion about what we can do in our homes too um make our water go a little bit further there was a very nice presentation from the water conservation

0:01:53representative from East Bay mud uh that pointed out many of the things that we can do but among the most common are fixing the everyday leak that most of us um often have in our homes and probably aren't aware of and the most common of course is the tank in the toilet and

0:02:11they have a little die kit that you can put in and it was very informative and a very simple thing for someone like me who's not an engineer who could easily figure this out um and then there was also a very informative um speaker from the gray water action and talked quite a bit about the how

0:02:31to's in doing laundry to landscape so that you could primarily use your washing machine under certain circumstances in your garden and make the water go a little further for that primarily for things like not so much your Lawns because we'd really like to get rid of a lot of The Lawns but more

0:02:54of the actual Gardens and there was a full house it was very very informative thank you uh just one announcement all of the residents should have received this notice of public hearing from stage Sanitary District regarding public hearing on June 12th at 7 pm at Siege

0:03:11sanitary's district office on Schmidt Lane right near the recycling center and I know the public hearing is in regards to a proposed rate increase that the district will be considering and it's a five-year rate increase under consideration currently a unit a home

0:03:28pays about 16.25 cents per month The Proposal is to increase that gradually over five years to 24.50 and the discussion or the meeting will cover the need for the increase which includes new water quality um regulations that are that are being met as well as just the district's overall

0:03:47program to replace and repair sewer Mains on our streets so if you're interested in hearing more about that please attend that meeting again on June 12th at 7 pm thank you and following up on uh director Katz's uh meeting from last time and and council member Bridge's comments we did

0:04:06receive in the mail a home survey kit for your water to test your water and it's a pamphlet that tells you more about how to save water plus a graduated bag that allows you to put this over a faucet head or a shower head and in a certain amount of time only so much

0:04:28water should collect in this graduated bag and here are the tablets that uh commissioner board member uh Bridges was talking about their harmless color tabs that you put in the tank of your uh toilet and if it turns the bowl colored in in 10 to 20 minutes I think it says then you have a

0:04:50leak that a plumber should uh should help you with with fixing so I would encourage you as as director Katz did I would encourage you to contact East Bay mud uh to get a um a home survey kit and that can be done both at their website www.ebmud.com or and this is free of charge by the way

0:05:14their phone number is 866-403-2683 so I'm encouraging all of you to survey your homes for leaks and do your best to uh to reduce them today on my way to work um uh doctor's hospital was out doing a community service and this is stroke awareness month and they were very clear

0:05:41of providing a handy card that provides us with some basic facts um you know look for uneven smile in the face uh check for unevenness uneven strength in the arms uh listen for slurred speech and then if you had any of those symptoms please call 9-1-1 and it the acronym is f-a-s-t face arm

0:06:05speech and time so Strokes are a very serious thing and we should hopefully be helping people and that's it for me oh I do have two events that I attended but I'm assuming you're going to report on those um Rick Tack and Earth Day yes yes um so I have a number of things I've

0:06:25been pretty busy the first thing is I want to mention that last night I was invited to attend the 2014 Asian Pacific American heritage awards ceremony and it was a very delightful experience I really appreciated the opportunity of going there were some a number of

0:06:45speeches and some very interesting performances over and this is over in San Francisco and included mayor Ed Lee I also went to view the fleet of the future models as Bart is calling its new trains and so I got an opera they have an actual mock or half of a mock car I guess you would

0:07:13call it on display and people are allowed to go in and touch and feel it's got this seats installed so you get a real feel for what it would be like to be on this new car and they're looking for everyone's opinion about that so um there are still some times that you

0:07:32can go there are two more times left according to my schedule and that would be on May 7th you can go to Fruitvale BART station between the hours of two to seven or on May 9th you could go to the Concord BART station between the hours of two to seven so that would be

0:07:51tomorrow and then two days later so if you have an opportunity to go it's a really interesting experience and they really are looking for public opinion so I would suggest you might want to go if you're interested in Bart I also was asked to welcome the Contra Costa County

0:08:14climate leaders or 4cl when as they did a workshop here in City Hall on the 29th and they were talking about General plans and um then I also attended the legislative action day uh briefing on priority bills up in Sacramento for the league of California cities that was held on April

0:08:47the 10th um and um actually excuse me the briefing ahead of time was held on April the 10th and the actual event was held on I don't actually have the date here but it was this month it was April 23rd thank you um so it was pretty interesting because it gave us a perspective on all of the

0:09:11bills that were um in process and I do have a handout on it that I thought I could give to Cheryl and it could be included in the next packet I also attended the West County um Mayors and supervisors Association where we talked about a number of things I think perhaps the

0:09:40most interesting thing that we talked about was a conversation that was had with Charles Ramsey who I did I just see him here he he's here he just stepped out okay and um where he was indicating that in the past that we had been supportive of the school district and now it was time for

0:10:02the school district to be supportive of the city given that we're our financial times are not as good as they have always been so it was a very interesting conversation and I look forward to hearing more about that topic on let's see this is the I went to the mayor's conference on May

0:10:26the 1st and there was a presentation on homeless services and I actually found it to be quite interesting and one of the things I took away from that was that homelessness is everywhere it's not just a thing that goes on in some other place it goes on in pretty much every city in

0:10:50Contra Costa County and they had the statistics although I didn't get a they didn't provide a copy of those statistics but I did get it did see them on a screen and in fact there were some homeless people in El Cerrito if I could read it correctly which is a little bit

0:11:04hard to do I think it said 49 and that was a census number and I'm not sure what the date on that was but the point is that it's everywhere and so it's everyone's problem and we all need to work together uh to find solutions to do it and the organization that spoke was called

0:11:25Trinity Center and they are a comprehensive Center that does help people who are homeless so I um also attended the Contra Costa Transportation Authority meeting and um the um I don't I don't I think I won't go into any detail on that I also attended the committee on Aging

0:11:56meeting and um I do want to mention a couple of uh events that see if any of them have are still to come um there is a balance in brain integration class being offered at the open house Senior Center and it actually goes on for eight weeks and so if you're interested you should contact the open

0:12:26house Senior Center at 559-7677 to register in for information and it's to um um help people integrate all of their you know the brain and body actions so that they are a bit are more um functional I um see here I feel like I should I think I will stop there if you don't mind but yeah except

0:13:06for Earth Day um Earth Day happened on April 26th and we had a very outstanding group of people working on a number of projects one of my favorite ones this year was when the council member Lyman worked on and we collected um about 40 300 uh cigarette butts from San Pablo Avenue

0:13:33and the reason I'd like to mention that is it might seem like a cigarette butt is a small thing but in fact cigarette butts are highly toxic and they're highly toxic to the water system and so if you think about somebody who flips a cigarette butt into the gutter what

0:13:50happens to it goes into the it goes into the storm drain system and that leads directly to the bay and so we were very pleased that we got so many um that we're also not very pleased at all that we we found so many so thank you uh council member Lyman councilmember Bridges council member

0:14:12Bridges that's right between she collected more she did she okay well I I picked up about a little over 600 and council member Bridges picked up about a thousand so lady please don't call me that and um but we had a number of other projects of that are particularly known

0:14:34at El Cerrito High there were almost 50 people at one's project site and but we also had a little project site so it was a combination a project something for everybody and uh I want to also thank all the people who put together the lunch um and um invite you to come back next year

0:15:00and with that let's see with that we will move on in the meeting um the next item is is there are any staff reports okay none okay then we will move on to oral Communications from the public are there any speakers yes mayor um we have Manish Doshi followed by Andy

0:15:24logo foreign good evening City Council Members my name is Manish Doshi I live at [address removed] in El Cerrito I'm also uh the director of coaching for the El Cerrito football club the soccer club and um I'm here to talk to Mr Ramsey Mr Faye about the Castro field the school

0:15:52district is putting in a multi-million dollar school and we were told repeatedly that Castro field would not be damaged in any way during the construction but as we know the field was adversely affected by the construction and soccer and baseball in the community have not had use of

0:16:10that field for over a year now and we would like to know if that field is going to be replaced as the school is being replaced by the West Contra Acosta school district and if so when because we've lost three seasons so far we're coming into a fourth season that's a lot

0:16:26of kids that are not being able to use that field not just the kids from the soccer program and the baseball program but also in the community and then because we couldn't use a field we needed to use a space so we went to the elsewhere uh to El Cerrito High School

0:16:44to get permits to use the high school field it's costing us 38 dollars an hour to use our high school field and I think that's abhorrent that we spend so much time and money as citizens of this community helping the school district build these facilities for our kids but

0:17:05whenever kids need to use them we're being charged this amount of money I was told a couple weeks ago that if we wanted to use the El Cerrito High School field for the summer it was 84 an hour and I would like uh Mr Ramsey and Mr Fay to address that because I think it's

0:17:24ridiculous that our community has spent that kind of money thank you delojo followed by Susan Schwartz good evening folks yeah I'm Andy loho and I um I wanted to talk to you briefly tonight on behalf of El Cerrito youth baseball and I also wanted to address Mr Fay and

0:17:50Mr Ramsey because the purpose of my talk is a request for a higher level of appreciation and consideration for our program when it comes to field sharing and there's been some issues so if you could bear with me I'll explain why I've been on the illustrator Board of

0:18:09Directors for the past six years and have served as president of the league for the past four years as you many of you know ecyb runs a non-profit youth baseball program we provide this fun educational program to approximately 350 to 400 children each year ranging in age from 5 to 16 years

0:18:26old it is a really fun program and serves the community in many important ways especially providing a way for our kids to learn Life Lessons not a not easily taught in the classroom our primary season runs from early February to early June overlapping with the high school spring Sports season

0:18:44easy wayb pays approximately fifteen thousand dollars a year in rent and fees to the city of El Cerrito to rent the baseball fields we need for the program we also invest hundreds of man hours a year into the fields in terms of volunteer work parties fixing sod

0:18:59cleaning up weeding painting benches Etc we invested significant significant amount of our fundraising and sponsorship dollars into the fields each year too on things like new bases pitching Mounds batters boxes special clay for pissing pitching mounds and other essential items needed to keep the

0:19:18parks in good condition for all our kids to play ball on including local high school teams that also use these same Fields under a joint use facilities agreement between the school district and the City in the past two years ecyb has invested over forty thousand dollars of

0:19:33fundraising and sponsorship money and hundreds of volunteer hours to completely redo the cinder infields at Harding Cannon Trail and Central Park uh Castro parks in partnership with the city this year as well as constructing the new batting cage at Cerrito Vista

0:19:49which El Cerrito High School uses free of charge I have gained a lot of experience over the past six years on the many important needs these ball fields fulfill not only to our program but to many other good programs including Youth Soccer High School baseball and softball adult

0:20:05Frisbee and many other youth programs sponsored by the city I've also I also have a son in high school now and I know full well how difficult it is for high schools to obtain access to field space for their teams it is one of the easy way is one of ecyb's primary management challenges

0:20:21and the high schools have the same issues as we do one of the primary tenets of the June 28 2006 joint use facilities agreement between the city and West Contra Costa Unified School District reads the city shall permit West Contra Costa Unified School District to use its facilities

0:20:38and grounds for recreational public purposes without charge as long as the use does not conflict with regular conduct of Park Recreation and public service activities or other regularly scheduled uses so as not to preempt use of facilities by regular patrons the

0:20:54first priority for use of City facilities shall be City use then groups and activities sponsored in holder in part by the city like ecib and then activities sponsored by West Contra Costa Unified I'm here tonight folks because El Cerrito High School's athletic department is not living up to the

0:21:11standard and it hasn't for years several times a year they have a negative impact on our program by kicking our teams off the field without notice and or disrupting delaying or preventing our regularly scheduled practices and games it has been this way for many years our

0:21:27City Field use permits actually state that ecyb must allow high school games to finish before we take the field I understand the good intent of that statement it is inconsistent with this part of the joint use facilities agreement um [Applause] it's important I don't want to take that

0:21:44away but despite many years of request ecyb has never received an official communication from El Cerrito High School's athletic department regarding their team schedules at the beginning of the season and we have never had an official communication letting us know

0:21:57when new games or rainouts get scheduled other schools give notice and we greatly appreciate it sometimes the coaches or parents of EC high school teams give us a heads up and that makes all the difference in the world but it has never yet come from an official School

0:22:11communication and that needs to change if we know 48 hours in advance that High School needs the field we can alert our teams and parents and reschedule things so that 40 to 50 people do not stand around waiting for their game to start while EC High School beats De Anza 22-1

0:22:26and the De Anza coach refuses to end the game at six to let us start our Pony game for 24 13 or 14 year olds that happened a couple years ago instead several times a year as in the past EC high school teams show up unexpectedly with a game that trumps our practices according to our permits as

0:22:43well as our scheduled schedule scheduled games last Monday you see High School JV baseball team had had such a game we had no official notice that it had been scheduled but we did get notice the game went an Extra Inning and then the EC High School team's coaches

0:22:59refused to leave the field and stayed there giving the team a tongue lashing for 40 minutes because they lost our visiting Pony Team sorry but your time is pretty much up so if you could wrap up please okay give me 20 seconds it killed our game it was totally unnecessary

0:23:16I don't blame those coaches or young kids that came through our program what I would like is more consideration from the school district some direction to the athletic department to take give us a little more priority a little more notice so this doesn't happen again

0:23:31there's a lot of ways we can work together we work together with other leagues other teams we share fields and we can maximize the use of these fields for all our kids we just need a little more consideration thank you thank you any more speakers next is Susan Schwartz

0:23:46followed by Anne Hogan oganowski thank you Susan for all of your wonderful work oh thank you Earth Day you have a handbag for me and now it looks like this to the top page three pages and I'll be referring to it I'm Susan Schwartz the head of friends of five Creeks we're an all-volunteer group

0:24:06that's worked in El Cerrito since it was founded in 1996. over the last three years we have cleared many acres of invasive fire prone French broom from the May main section of the hillside Natural Area and we've been doing detailed GPS mapping of the plants in this remarkable natural treasure

0:24:26I am here I know you're strapped but to ask that you devote more attention and resources to stewardship particularly in the area of fire hazard reduction the first map and the packet that you have shows in cream the large areas where that we have cleared so far but the

0:24:45yellow is what remains most of the yellow cannot be handled by volunteers it's in the Quarry or it's on extremely steep slopes the map also shows in Orange some of the other fire prone invasives that should be controlled before they become as big a problem as the broom has become this

0:25:04is mainly fennel and pampus grass they are spreading and they more they need more than just your annual mowing we can supply you with detail Maps we can help with thousands of hours of removal or control after large infestations are grown but you have to put a small amount

0:25:22of money into a stitch in time the second map next page shows in green some of the more than hundreds of a hundred more than 100 species of native plants we have mapped and the point of this is there's a lot worth saving uh this is also was also emphasized in your fire hazard reduction plans for

0:25:43this area of the 1980s and the 1990s it is no reflection on the fire department to say that these plans have not been carried out the annual mowing done for many years by Gordon white has been heroic but it can't do the job more resources are needed the city also should consider simple

0:26:06adjustments like adjusting the Heights and timing of mowing so that these beautiful natives which you will see on the third page can set seed and spread and survive then last year after Gordon retired some areas were mowed down to dirt six weeks ago we persuaded the East

0:26:27Bay's three top experts on maintaining native grasslands to offer to meet with your staff in office and insight for free to talk about some of the adjustments that can be made these are not wild-eyed environmentalists one of them is the rangeland manager for the

0:26:44East Bay Regional Park District this meeting has not happened I don't think anyone has answers but folks should be willing to listen and try to reach better Solutions the third page of your handout the one with the picture of all the flowers shows what is at stake here

0:27:04we were out pulling the re-sprouting broom this morning it was very exciting to see the comeback of ferns currents monkey flower blue eyed grass and many more things I hope that some of you will join us at the May 17th Hillside Festival we'll be pulling broom in the

0:27:21morning I will lead a wildflower walk at 1 30 so you can see some of these flowers there's also a plant list and a slideshow of many of the wildflowers on our website please put more budget and effort into stewarding this treasure thank you I'm Anne okanowski I've lived in El

0:27:50Cerrito for almost 15 years and worked with friends of five Creeks for 13 or 14 I'm not sure which and also Baxter Creek I've done probably I've committed myself to over several hundred close to a thousand hours of volunteer activity with five creeks in Baxter Creek and

0:28:10also save the block on San Pablo and I just want to Second Susan's Schwartz's request for a little more funds toward these efforts uh to because as a volunteer while I'm willing to expend a lot of energy it can be frustrating when you see that something's not followed up or worse

0:28:33that what you've tried to nurture has been destroyed because of low Mowing and also as a volunteer I can see how crucial it is to have someone someone we can go to for direction I think I could Marshal many more volunteers for the city and these efforts if that were true

0:28:55basically we do need a little more help but we're we have a lot of willing hands thank you I have no other speaker slips okay thank you okay um thank you everyone with that we will move on to presentations the first presentation is from the Contra Costa Community College District facility

0:29:19needs and priorities staff on information about measure e and we have some very key people would you like to introduce yourselves good evening I'm mayor Abelson and members of the El Cerrito city council thank you for having us here I'm Denise Nolan I'm president of Contra Costa

0:29:42College and I'm John Marcus I'm John Marcus I'm the president of the Contra Costa Community College District and you're also I believe are representative right I am I represent Ward one so I am your representative on thank you [Laughter] so we have a presentation here tonight

0:30:04to bring you up to speed about our facilities needs and priorities and information about measure e which is on the about the the ballot upcoming in uh Community College District this year is celebrating its 65th year in addition to two of our colleges Contra Costa

0:30:25College and Diablo Valley College we're also celebrating 65 years of serving the community Contra Costa Community College District is one of 10 the 10 largest of the 72 Community College districts in the state of California and we serve over 55 000 students in Contra Costa County annually

0:30:44our schools and the colleges in our district include of course Contra Costa College Diablo Valley College and Los Medanos College in Diablo Valley College has the San Ramon campus and Los Medanos College has the Brentwood center I'm sure that many of you may know that

0:31:09the role of our colleges we essentially serve as a safety net in this community we provide education for local students and and a lot of the circumstances of our students require that they attend a community college because many cannot afford the cost of attending a four-year

0:31:24college or university in order for us to continue to provide those Services we do need to provide additional services so that students can continue and successfully complete their educational goals we offer job training we train a lot of the workforce here in West County and

0:31:43and the other parts of Contra Costa County and one of the things that we are concerned about is our ability to provide Advanced Medical Care training at facilities that are equipped with uh machines and equipment and um to serve our students in a way that makes them marketable when they go out

0:32:04in the community so some of the fastest growing careers in the country are the exact fields in which we train students in our College as well as the other colleges in the district so we are really trying hard to keep Pace with the trends that assist us to maintain high

0:32:21quality career training programs and Science and Technology and Public Safety College transfer is also an area that is is very important to our colleges the cost of attending colleges as I mentioned earlier is is really risen a lot as much as six times that of attending a community college so

0:32:45the way in which community colleges really serve the purpose for students accessing higher education particularly for your degrees is coming to a local community college to earn college credits and and get certifications as well as job skills and we do it at a very reasonable price of 46 dollars per

0:33:02unit we do need support in order to improve our facilities to ensure that our students are prepared to transfer to four-year universities in the past the community has supported us quite well we have a 2002 measure a bond and we were supported to the tune of 120 million dollars at a maximum tax

0:33:23rate of 4.72 dollars per 100 000 of assessed value we also had a measure a plus bond in 2006 and that Bond was uh 286.5 million the maximum tax rate for that bond is nine dollars per 100 000 of assessed value we've twice issued refunding bonds our district has twice issued refunding

0:33:47bonds or refinance bonds saving taxpayers 14.5 million dollars over the life of the bonds Transforming Our campuses the accomplishments of those bonds provided us with the ability at Contra Costa College to remodel our library it also allowed us to have to build a

0:34:07new student services Center and we are in the midst of and I believe I was here last year talking about our huge project that we're working on now which is our new College Center and that will provide us with a new classroom facilities in addition to administrative quarters for

0:34:24the administrative staff and culinary arts instructional program in a restaurant which is the lab for The Culinary Arts students in addition to a meeting room um Diablo Valley College has also benefited they they had a new bookstore build and they have a wonderful new

0:34:42service Student Services Center there and also their culinary and cafeteria quad and and also the San Ramon campus there and Los Medanos College has a new science building and a new mathematics building and they've remodeled the core Center building at that campus

0:34:59our own ongoing challenge being a an institution that's 65 years old many of our buildings and many of the buildings that host our core academic classes in the college are currently in deteriorating facilities and in particular some of the the areas where we see the greatest trends for

0:35:19increasing employment opportunities and training opportunities for our students is being done in areas that have really outdated equipment we do need additional funds to repair and upgrade those classrooms and update the learning technology which is currently housed in the original

0:35:36buildings that were built over 50 years ago in the case of Contra Costa College when our campus near when our campus first opened we've also experienced because of the ongoing effect of state budget cuts over the past few years a lack of funding from the state we had historic Cuts over

0:35:57the past few years and that meant that some of the maintenance that we would have been able to provide or the fact that we would get support to build new buildings from the states that has been significant significantly reduced and it's just been impossible for us to do

0:36:12much in terms of keeping up our facilities we did have proposition 30 help to provide important funding for educational programs but it did not provide us with funding for necessary repairs and upgrades to our physical plant measure e which was approved by the Contra Costa Community College District

0:36:30board unanimously on February 26th as a bond measure that will appear on the June 3rd ballot it's a local education Bond measure requiring over 55 percent of voter support in order for it to pass and we did commission an independent survey and we did find that as many as

0:36:5070 percent of respondents would potentially support a local Bond measure this June so I have here the the ballot language to upgrade educational facilities at our three colleges Diablo Valley Contra Costa and Los Medanos and the San Ramon and Brentwood centers and to help

0:37:09prepare students for jobs and College transfer by modernizing classrooms and Labs building facilities for health medical science and technology training and implementing earthquake safety accessibility and infrastructure improvements shall the Contra Costa Community College District issue 450

0:37:27million of bonds at legal interest rates with independent oversight Audits and all of the funds spent on Local District sites how would these additional funds help us they would make our buildings and classrooms and grounds more accessible particularly particularly for people

0:37:46with disabilities it would provide us with improved academic facilities to help our students prepare for 21st century jobs and transfer to four-year universities it will provide us with facilities and resources for science technology and medical health career services training programs the stem

0:38:05disciplines including nursing and dental technology and health administration and it would also help us to install and maintain technology for modern Hands-On Career Training how can we be sure that these funds will be spent as promised all of the funds are required by law to be spent here in

0:38:24Contra Costa County to improve our facilities at each of our sites at Diablo Valley College Contra Costa College Los Medanos College San Ramon campus in the Brentwood center if approved by the voters the funding measure will include strict accountability requirements including a

0:38:40public expenditure plan independent annual Audits and an independent citizens oversight committee to ensure that the funds of spent as promised and managed in an efficient fiscally prudent manner on priority repair and Improvement projects in addition of the fiscal accountability

0:38:58requirements would include the following Provisions by law as I mentioned earlier all Bond expenditures must be monitored by an independent Citizen's oversight committee to ensure that the funds are spent only on voter authorized projects by law the citizens oversight committee

0:39:16must include among others representation of a bona fide taxpayers Association representation of a bona fide taxpayers Association a business organization and a Citizens organization senior excuse me a senior citizens organization by law no funds can go toward administrative salaries or

0:39:37pensions the major projects at Contra Costa College include the construction or or modernization of current spaces housing our science and Allied Health Centers we have a number of Science and Allied Health programs many of which put students out in the community to serve

0:39:57our community in a variety of ways we also want to modernize and construct our campus operations building and the modernization of our gym Annex and gymnasium facilities the locker rooms and all of those facilities are really in need of a major upgrade at Diablo Valley College in San Ramon

0:40:16there are a number of projects constructing science and learning center complex and modernizing their engineering technology building and modernizing their uh or constructing a new art building and modernizing their physical education complex as well expanding the San Ramon campus including

0:40:34but not limited to the parking expanding their parking and expanded space for their Library services and improvements to classrooms and labs for transfer and Career Technical programs Los Medanos College in the Brentwood Center Los Medanos College would construct a new Student Activities

0:40:51building and construct a new Brentwood center modernize their college complex building and also modernize their physical education and Aquatics facilities their new Brentwood center site would be at highway 4 and Marsh Creek Road in order to get more information about

0:41:12this particular measure on the upcoming ballot you can contact our district at www.4cd.edu or any specific questions can of course be addressed to myself at the college or to contact Tim Leon who was our district public information officer and the phone number is

0:41:34925-229-6823 or by email info 4cd.edu and I'm going to turn this over to Mr Marquez just augment the presentation thank you very much Dr nolden um I think you you just heard a very comprehensive explanation of why we're here uh we're seeking for your help we need that help to ensure that our

0:42:05constituents our taxpayers realize that uh we are embarked in ensuring that we spend our money wisely and we're hoping that you as council members would think about endorsing our program many of you know that I shoved under Richmond city council for 18 years on and off

0:42:30uh and now I'm in a college board I recognize procedurally that you as a board cannot endorse presentations but you can put these kinds of presentations on the agenda future agendas if you so wish to have discussions on them we provided the clerk with a a sample

0:42:51actually is a the resolution that we provided to the elections office so that if you all decide to support us endorses or help us at least to have discussion on at a city council level she can prepare a resolution for you a lot easier than having to start from scratch

0:43:11we're really hoping that you will help us we have made presentations in other City councils and the responses have been very very positive and I trust as I look around that you will do the same this is for all of us not just for the colleges it's for all our students our children are coming up

0:43:36to those levels and we intend to ensure that the education that our students get is quality education in safe facilities and there are accessible uh to everyone you know most particularly we hear a lot about a lot in our veterans coming back from the war you see it a lot on TVs

0:43:57read about it and giving everybody the Atta boys out of girls well what better way to really support their welcome home is to help us build structures that are accessible to those veterans coming back and so I urge all of you to really think about what we just presented to you and

0:44:19hopefully you will find it in your hearts too give us your endorsement thank you very much and we're open to questions if you so have are there any questions from the council thank you for the presentation and thank you for your work um preparing students we know how What

0:44:34proportion of the population now needs an education beyond the 12th grade so it's an important role that you all play in our Economic Development um has the district made a commitment or are there policies you have with regard to Sustainable Building practices as

0:44:47you're embarking on these on construction of these facilities yes um the building that we're currently doing while we're not um registering for lead uh the lead standards um we're they're be we are meeting with the the um our construction management team as well as the contractor on a weekly basis

0:45:11to determine when and where we can to ensure that as close to those standards as we can meet we are doing that in every aspect of our building it is quite expensive of course to build to lead standards and in order to really get the best use of the public dollars

0:45:29we're trying to not necessarily go for those formalized standards but we're building as close to those standards as we possibly can right and recognizing any operating savings you might feature and sort of in a similar vein as you're planning for additional parking and is

0:45:44there consideration given to Transportation demand management or how students are able to get to your campuses with different types of modes yes yes yes um as far as Contra Costa College we will be having discussions in a very near future with the city of Richmond uh

0:46:02you know they have the little bus uh uh Carey color what they call it when I call it green or yellow Transportation things or little buses that they have in the city through some kind of grant that they received from a nearby Refinery and uh so we're going to be having

0:46:17discussions with them to see how we can connect and they've approached me and we'll be talking with them about forming some kind of a Cooperative so that our students don't have to drive to the campus they can catch catch their transportation in certain locations and

0:46:34uh and they can get their transportation to the college we're also talking with other nearby facilities and and properties to see how we can work out the parking situation the Contra Costa in terms of each County we're in contact with the BART system uh the gobart as we

0:46:54call it in East County we are sure that they have hurt us and we're going to work closely with them to see how we can help our students get transportation from the BART stations to the campuses that's great I noticed the first bullet under San Ramon campus expansion is

0:47:13expanded parking right and unfortunately they have land that they can expand to park at you know we we're really challenged at on our campus because of the seismic challenges we face so parking is really really difficult and part of the education process for us is

0:47:29to along with teaching our students about sustainable practices is getting them to consider using public transportation and carpooling and those kinds of things and so we are working with our students and our faculty and our staff to look at alternative ways to

0:47:42get to campus we have a bike to campus day coming up and and those kinds of things so that we can really help them to figure out that not only is it helping to alleviate the parking situation that we have on campus but it's good for our environment thank you councilmember 11 no no comments okay I

0:48:02just want to add to what um uh council member or mayor Pro tem benesini was saying about Park all right add to the conversation and say that one of the things I appreciate about Contra Costa College is that you have a very large Bus Center they're all ready that brings in buses

0:48:24from all over the area so so in fact I don't know you know it's very very helpful to have that asset the rapid bus runs all the way from Oakland to Contra Costa College for example and there are a number of other buses that do also if you wanted to take the but if you

0:48:45wanted to go there from El Cerrito there are three different buses the 70 to 72 M and the 72r that you could take along San Pablo in very frequent service so there's already a lot of bus service and you've been as far as I know very supportive over the years of that Transit Center we were very we

0:49:08were very uh proactive in in working with a she transit to to do what you just described and get the transportation close to the campuses we've laid out the the the the um the system from the from the from the uh bus stop all the way to the call to the campuses and with these new

0:49:26constructions going on it'll be a lot easier for physically disabled students for example to ride the bus get off the bus and have the ability to get to the classes without the hardships that uh people have suffered in the past so we're very proud of that fact and and

0:49:42we're really working hard to ensure that we meet the needs of all our students in in our community and you do serve I believe don't you know a lot of disabled students we we do that over the years and we probably will serve more when when we do the construction up because we're working

0:50:01towards like I said ensuring that we have the um the system set up so it'll be easier for disabled students uh to get to their classes too that what's something that has been an outgrowth of our meetings regularly with the construction team is Consulting with our programs for students with

0:50:20disabilities they've really done a great job of just helping us to figure out how we can navigate the campus with the big hole in the center and so forth and also they'll continue to help us as we begin to to embrace the new buildings and figure out how to best uh increase

0:50:36access for students with disabilities and so it's been a really good Synergy that's been created between that office and the construction management team so I would hope that as you um you said that you're working with Richmond to develop a new system that you would also work with AC transit to

0:50:54promote the existing systems that go there because they really are quite good in my opinion um and um I mean the main line goes there so you can't you can't really beat that um so um do we have any speaker slips on this side no we don't mayor okay then I would like to suggest that we do put this item

0:51:16on our next agenda for consideration of support yes that would be a measure e yes yeah thank you so much for your time and for your thoughts thank you for coming thank you okay the next item is the update from the West Contra Costa Unified School District on the school construction activities

0:51:52and according to this it's Charles Ramsey I'm not Charles but there he is you're gonna go first and hello and Bill Faye are you Bill Faye welcome and there is a um or yes sir I thought there was is there a handout already yes there are some of this there should be two handouts oh okay it

0:52:20starts out Portola or um the first one will be the city of El Cerrito okay second one will be Portland on program projects that that is correct and we do have extras up here for the public thank you for coming I want to go first what issue or I'll just start the birthday you want

0:52:43to hear the presentation first I can present or do you want information on the measure or do you want steps why don't you I mean I I would think we'd want to hear about the bond program and then the measure right that's what I thought it's like a good order I thought his presentation at

0:53:01least yes okay sounds good and there is a microphone there and we are being it is being shown on TV um wonderful one more I start up this animation oh you were so close go over to slide the slideshow menu slideshow doing this all the way to the left yep all weekend yeah

0:53:40there you go there you go so good evening mayor council members and staff my name is Bill Fay and I'm the associate superintendent for operations for the school district and take this opportunity to thank you for letting us update you on projects that are going on

0:54:05in the city the first thing I wanted to do is address the Castro Park issue and um I want to go on the record to say that Castro Park will be fixed to the level of of new Turf and we're looking at a new irrigation system so it'll be ready for the August date that the gentleman talked about so we

0:54:43plan on this year of this year so we plan on starting in June and then pushing that through and getting the field ready so the other issues that were talked about site-based issues I'll take back to my boss and and Dr harder and and he can better formulate a response back to

0:55:05the board and to the two individuals that raise those questions so um the the the first set of documents we wanted to talk about I'm going to have a Kareem massab come up he is my bond project manager and he's going to talk about the El Cerrito stadium and the repairs that we have to the I'm going to

0:55:33call it the envelope for Harding Elementary School welcome back thank you very much a pleasure to be here as I'm over here to Lake Mississippi indicated to give you overview of our ongoing projects and forthcoming projects which is Mr Mark Marcus hesper is going to be followed

0:55:59that presentation or city of El Cerrito ongoing projects are one is the last of the project in Cerrito High School as you all know last 10 years we've been in construction in City El Cerrito high school project well made I started the temporary campus Demolition and the building of the main

0:56:25campus of El Cerrito High School last year we did a stadium one field project currently ongoing project is the El Cerrito High School stadium project that's under the construction that's the slide Mr favorite proceed that's another slide out there machineries and

0:56:45equipments are out there and that's another slide over there we have a full-time construction manager on site the scope of work is included installation of the artificial turf all weather track drinking fountains overhead canopy ticket boats bleachers Press Box Ada lift chain fence and

0:57:09security and lighting all together we call this stadium for El Cerrito high school project project has started in January 27 of the this year 2014 we project that anticipating to be completed by September 27 after 2015.

0:57:28they projected cost the bid award and for time being we are assuming there will be no changes no added to the cost 30 million 438 000 projects on schedule coming along very well the next project we are about to start in Hardin Elementary School this is the project also that while ago we completed

0:57:53modernization we have a small project on this campus we call the roof and that's basically facet of exterior of the siding of the Hardin Elementary School and we have a small project going forward that's another facial this project is included exterior repair and

0:58:15Roofing repairs this is a basically exterior wall window door repairs refurbishing interior roof access we are expecting to receive a bit uh on May 13 next week and the project to be started on June and completed by September 2014 May exceed it further but the cost of

0:58:41its small project 215 000 dollars these are the two projects right now we are seeing that ongoing right now Mr Mark Marcus history is going to follow through the construction of the Portola middle school and going forward Fairmont Elementary School start Marcus

0:59:06good evening I'm Marcus hipster with Hy Architects and I'm here to talk to you about both Portola and Fairmont Elementary schools that the both projects are intertwined in some way because they're both going to share the temporary housing facilities that Portola students are

0:59:25currently occupying on the we're now calling the old Portola campus very quickly just to give you an overview of the Portola project and where we are to date this is uh this is a picture of building a under construction building a is the existing building this is this is Danelle here

0:59:42this is the existing building that is going to that remains and we're renovating that this image is from the courtyard and you can see the gymnasium behind there and the library up in here and you can see the state of the construction go ahead the building b as

0:59:57we call it is the gymnasium ladman and Library that's tucked into the hillside where the kindergarten the old kindergarten building used to be um it's uh it's it's it's quite impressive right now coming out of the ground and it's going to to have right now what you can see here is the

1:00:13gymnasium part this is the interior of the gymnasium what was going to be built in this area later is the administration is going to be the administration wing and this is the front of that building this is going to be the main entrance go ahead Building C as we call it a new classroom

1:00:31building it's a two-story building built into the hillside right adjacent to the park here the this is the lower level inside this area here is going to be a fitness and a dance studio you can see at this point they're just just forming the foundations and getting ready to

1:00:45pour them in the next couple of weeks a few weeks after that they'll be Steel in the air and this building will start to take shape as well what you see here is a picture of the the upper Elevator Shaft there's going to be two elevators in this building next slide and finally building D

1:01:02Building D is a multi-purpose building the multi-purpose building includes a stage obviously for for performances a full kitchen including a Community Kitchen as well as a Performing Arts classroom and practice rooms it's both for their drama and music programs which

1:01:16are pretty stellar if you haven't heard any of their performances they're quite good next slide so the schedule for the project uh obviously we're still building it now the project completion is scheduled for December of 2015 is quite a lot of work still to be done but

1:01:33we believe that things the the the weather certainly cooperated with us and we believe that we're in really good shape for that after that the district will come in and outfit what we call ffne or fixtures furnishings and equipment and that'll be the computers and the on the tables and the desks and

1:01:49so on and so forth so we're anticipating a move in sometime March April of 2016 that's something that will have to be coordinated with the school itself make sure that we're not disrupting their operations but regardless by the end of that that school year barring no other

1:02:03un no unforeseen things happening during construction we'll be ready to move them out so then we can then renovate their campus that they're in now to house the Fairmont Elementary School Fairmont Elementary School uh so the for those of you familiar with Fairmont

1:02:23um it's uh it's an it's a dilapia somewhat dilapidated a little campus it's got a great program a great heart to it um but a lot of the about over almost a third of the classrooms are in Portables right now and it really needs to be effectively torn down and rebuilt in

1:02:38this effect that's exactly what we're doing go ahead so uh as I said it's the lapidate it's a 55 year old campus you can see the Portables there's a number of Portables out here a number of Portables out there one of the problems that this site has is very small but it has a lot of

1:02:53students especially a lot of students with special needs special physical needs 10 of the population has some sort of physical disability and they're um they have a full inclusion program so they're trying to bring they are bringing all the students mainstream into the campus but they still need

1:03:09specialty spaces for these students and that's one thing that they lack our specialty spaces go ahead so the new campus is going to accommodate that what we're doing is we're the layout is very similar to what's existing now the kindergarten's up in front the administration is up in

1:03:25front also right where it is now we're changing the main entrance right now uh the main entrance is off of Kearney and uh the main interest is now going to be off of Stockton which is where the buses will come drop off it's the it's more level for any kids with in wheelchairs

1:03:40can come right in this is actually the the um the sh kindergarten class I'm sorry preschool classroom right in here and some of the other classrooms that are specifically for disabled students are on the lower level we also have some on the upper level of the upper grades are on the upper level

1:03:57we have two elevators in the building to get them there a lot of the features here a lot of these um these these different colored boxes are different improvements on the outdoors for Outdoor Learning environments there's rain Gardens there's various things um there's there's a there's a garden up

1:04:15here at the edge of the playground and all of it is going to be made accessible including the play structure here this is going to be a universal play structure so it's not just that there's a transfer station so Johnny can go stand there or sit there in his wheelchair and play with uh with Timmy

1:04:29he actually can get up on the play structure with his wheelchair and play with the other kids so we think it's a great feature it's a great it's a great it's a great program and we're really happy to be able to provide the facilities that they need for it go ahead

1:04:43this is just a little bit more about the site I talked a lot about it already we're doing a lot of things in a sustainable fashion for this project we're meeting chips guidelines which is a collaborative for high performance schools very similar to lead it's very

1:04:58the the guidelines are almost the same but this is specifically for schools we have a lot of natural daylighting even though it's a two-story building we have a we've opened up skylights and opened up and in the in the main Corridor and created a well so that light can get

1:05:14down to the first floor even then like I said it though it's this two-story building we'll get a light inside the corridor natural light inside the corridor we're trying to incorporate as many features in the building as possible so that every area of the building is a learning environment

1:05:28as well as as well as the as well as the site this here represents the history of El Cerrito and so the kids can see this it's going to be in the pavement as you walk down the center of the campus go ahead so again the schedule um that we the project is at about 95

1:05:46construction documents so we have to complete that we have some updates to make for the current code and we're going to be doing that work between now and September of this year we'll submit to the division of the state architect which we anticipate permit period we're

1:06:00planning for about 11 months could be a little sooner but 11 months seems about reasonable given the response time and the quality assurance that the district goes through to make sure that the drawings are in really good shape for bidding we'll be bidding it in we're

1:06:13planning to bid it in May of 2016 to September of 2016 the long bid the long bid process there's a lot of due diligence done by the district and a lot of Outreach done to a lot of local contractors to be sure we get good participation which is why the extended period and you can see a coincide fights

1:06:28with the renovation for the temp campus for the Fairmont students which is critical because they need this temp campus in order to be able to move out so as you recall portal is finished Portola moves into their new building we renovate the Portola campus temp campus

1:06:43for Fairmont then Fairmont moves in then we can start building in September of 2016 and we anticipate about two years for construction so complete about 20 um September 2018.

1:06:56and that's all I have thank you very much I have any questions feel free questions from the council um yeah I have I'll start with a question regarding the El Cerrito High School stadium project you the first bullet point talks about the scope of work and it has a list of the turf and the track

1:07:11and the drinking fountains I don't have I don't see any comments here about restrooms and how our field users that currently use that along with the tennis courts and hopefully they'll be a little more openness that we'll be able to our residents and our voters will be able to

1:07:27walk on the track and have access to restrooms in the city here in El Cerrito we've always been very accommodating to all of our Park users for a simple twenty dollars you can get a key to our restrooms and many people do that but we've had a lot of problems having

1:07:44access to any kind of facilities felt such as that at the high school so could you please comment about what the plan is for that if they just oh I I'll feel that question okay um now from the um from the site level about the athletic department that um lets teams know in advance

1:08:07um that's something that we can take back but from a facility use standpoint um I know that the way that we uh the only charges that the school districts come up are something which is called direct costs and so I have contracts with my um labor unions that say that if the if

1:08:29school facilities are used after hours that they have the right to come in and clean them up and so it's just their hourly salary plus their overhead is what we come back and charge and I didn't understand that there was a difference in charge and or that it was

1:08:47so much per hour to get that done so I'm going to take that back and and get that straightened out so that because our facility use permit is at our website they can go click on it see what the charges are and how we do that so the the district does not use that as a cost

1:09:08center so we don't make any money all we do is cover our direct cost but all I'm asking is can we get a key to the restrooms for the users what you're saying is we have to have access through a staff member no I think that for after hours we have a position that's called a Rover and the

1:09:29Rover goes through and opens up all the facilities and closes all the facilities during the weekend during the weekdays we have custodians on site until eight or nine o'clock and they will open and close and we will give access to anybody that wants to walk around the track and

1:09:52and um uh access to the restrooms so in other words the only way you have access to the restroom is through a staff member who's no the staff member will open it up at the beginning of the time where the public can use it and close it at at um at dusk because that dusk is for us the the time

1:10:14where really nobody should be using the facilities Because unless they have a permit to turn on the lights and do that kind of thing I guess I'm really not understanding this so I understand there's a I'm not talking about team sports I'm just talking about say me as

1:10:30an individual if I want to go and walk on the track and it happens to be 5 30 and your staff member is not there I can't have access no the restroom will be open okay that's what I'm saying so it's just and so the staff member comes at the end of their um shift and to lock it up and that's

1:10:46usually after dusk after it gets one have to pay no okay okay so they'll be full access to the restrooms at the high school okay thank you um and then do you want me to comment now that the questions about the the field users and and the joint use agreement or should we do that another

1:11:05time can I do that now sure um so I just had a question about the fees and is this something that can potentially be looked at I'm one of the members of The Joint Powers Association that looks at all the field users primarily for soccer where we have the joint agreement with

1:11:23the city of Richmond and Albany using the Gilman track and all the other soccer facilities and the fees that are being charged the teams that are using the high school at El Cerrito are sometimes four and five times higher than any of the other City agreements that we have including the city of

1:11:43Berkeley the Gilman track which is known as the Bates Sports field and is there some way that we can um absolutely take another look at that because this is this is not what we thought we were going to be getting as voters when we vote for some of these measures and the bonds to be passed and

1:12:03have such exorbitant fees to our kids and I would like to know how you can reconcile that or discuss that with us absolutely we're happy to talk about that and so I'm sitting here today I don't I can't reconcile the two different tiers all I can say is the way that the program is supposed to work is

1:12:32the only thing is charged is for our custodians to come open up the facility and close the facilities and those are that's on the weekends and that's when they normally don't work on the weekdays there's somebody there all day at school through the evening and the facility should be opened up and

1:12:53available to anybody that wants to use them from Individual citizen standpoint and and then they get locked up at dust and so I I'm happy to go back and look at that because the the fees that I heard seemed also exorbitant to me so is what you're saying is if if the soccer

1:13:13Community wanted to use the field at El Cerrito High School from nine in the morning until say four in the afternoon are we under the understanding then that a custodian person comes in opens up the gate for the use of the field then leaves and comes back or they paid for

1:13:29the nine or eight hours or whatever typically an opening time frame like an hour the closing time frame is the one that has more of the hours because they're actually charged with cleaning up the facility so so if the users don't leave a whole lot out they don't have a

1:13:46whole lot of things to pick up then the charge should be less if there's a large group and they have to pick up the paper from the field and and do all of that that's where the charges come from but they're only direct costs okay so one could assume it could be potentially three hours of

1:14:06custodial time and assuming that there's no trash pickup from what I understand at the turf field at the El Cerrito High School it's actually absolutely forboden to bring any kind of food and drink and I think that the community of soccer players actually does follow that rule I

1:14:24don't think that they it's not like the little kids where they drink juice boxes out on the field the older kids that are using these fields don't do that they don't bring food and drink into into so there shouldn't really be any trash pickup associated with this these teams

1:14:39and so I'm just trying to clarify would you you assume that it might be only three hours of time well to a point what I would default to is um you know what this district is contrary from a contractual standpoint with my um with my uh Contra with District employees

1:15:05it might be one hour to open up in two hours to close and that's what's in their contract and that's all I would expect it to be okay that's that's very good thank you so much for clarifying that um and then as far as the um the restoration of the field that Castro

1:15:22from what I understand and from my observation at the infield is in pretty good shape it's the Outfield of the the field that's in very poor shape there was some trenching it was compacted probably incorrectly there's been sinkholes it's probably a liability to

1:15:39have kids out they're at least playing soccer The Outfield I'm not so sure about we've lost three seasons and so now this is the first week of May we're to assume that there's actually some sort of a process that's going to take place in the next three weeks you said June where

1:15:58this field could be the the restoration could begin after losing three seasons is that what I understand stood you to say yes okay and then I assume they might put if it's going to be ready in August they're sodding this and replacing the irrigation system which is

1:16:16also a problem or has become a problem since the construction yeah is that right I've been made aware of that and and I'm pledging to take care of all of those issues okay that's that's very good to hear because I think that we're we're all well many of us are very

1:16:32concerned about this um and then I had a question about the Portola uh site there's a dance studio there's a many performing art facilities and there's a gymnasium are there any outdoor facilities for the junior high uh yes and um if we could go all the way back to the first slide I can give you a

1:16:55little bit point to a little bit of it uh there we go well actually can you go to the next one is it so it's a small image here but if this this is the entire well this represents the entire Campus of course this is the field right here on the lower level so the gymnasium is here and the axis is

1:17:19off the lower level which is currently the playground and it basically stays the playground it stays a playground as well as a garden we have a garden a a garden that they can use for their educational purposes because we anticipated to be a vegetable garden but

1:17:32they can do what they will with it it's it's entirely up to them so um there is um there are a number of basketball courts down here then there's a track that that we've um that's going to run around this is all paved then on the upper level this is the multi-purpose

1:17:47building where they're going to go in and get their lunch and they're going to come out here the the idea is that they have this is not this is a spill out space for performances but it's also where they're going to eat their lunch they're also basketball courts up there

1:18:00so there's going to have physical activity up on the upper level we tried very hard to keep the physical activity the basically the noise making activity away from the classroom so you can see that the we call this the academic quad because all the classrooms are basically

1:18:13wrapping around this academic space you know some of that does face the park and there are there are two classrooms that do face um face this area back in here but uh but by and large the the physical physical activities are going to be on the upper part of the campus and lower

1:18:29part of the campus all right thank you so much that's all I have for now I think councilmember Bridges has asked many of the questions that I think all many of us are interested in the joint use and the sort of practices that are going on so I'll just comment that there

1:18:42was a lot of head shaking when you were we were trying to describe how much one of the teams might pay for custodian services or some head shaking with regard to how many hours are being charged and Manish is holding up a piece of paper which I think is his bill so I

1:18:57think what we were trying to surmise is not been his experience and I would just make one of their comment with regard to some of the use Youth Baseball um discussions that were going on it seems like in an age where we tweet what dinner we have every moment and we're

1:19:10communicating with one another so simply the the request for communication with the athletic director when games are being scheduled seems like a pretty reasonable one I'm not sure obviously this might be something that can go through the principle or who's the the

1:19:22appropriate person who can make that a priority for the athletic director to correspond with it seems like that the only two groups that are primarily using these these diamonds are the youth baseball and the high school baseball if they can just have a relationship where

1:19:37they're letting each other know when they need to use the field that seems like a pretty easy easy fix and high school baseball don't they use Cerrito Vista Park using El Cerrito High or Castro of Cerrito Vista always have the El Cerrito High School has several

1:20:02teams I guess um probably the JD where do they practice could you do it at the mic please and I identify yourself again please it's uh Andy loho president of ecyb gentlemen um so El Cerrito High School practices varsity at Cerrito Vista and they're very considerate they they stop at five when

1:20:32we start our practices and games JV usually practices on the turf field when that's going on our biggest problem is when games happen and it's not just the high school baseball it's High School the girls softball um usually the girls softball is on the turf field when games are going on at

1:20:52Cerrito Vista and we usually know about them but not all the time what happens sometimes though is for whatever reason if the high school baseball game is canceled at Cerrito Vista or it's happened I believe three times this year where for whatever reason the high

1:21:09school game is change from Cerrito Vista actually one time it was a rain out so the the high school team kicked this El Cerrito softball team off of the turf their backup field is Harding so Harding gets used in that case and then we also have other high schools use uh Central so

1:21:31anyway it's it's a little complicated but it's it's primarily Cerrito Vista also Harding sometimes and it used to be Castro but it hasn't happened this year yeah I've got a couple of short questions um the space that the open space that was just being described for Portola

1:21:57um is that going to be accessible to the public because not all of the facilities that are this the school district owns are accessible to the public uh mostly for example after school at at Harding or or Fairmont they're not always necessarily accessible to us so we're

1:22:16just curious if the basketball courts that you were describing both lower playground and upper playground at Portola if they're going to be behind locked Gates uh most of the time or if they're going to be accessible my understanding having conversations with the principal because it's not

1:22:31really an operational issue from campus to campus the principal has control of who comes on and off the campus my understanding is that the principle is interested in having full access to the site with the exception of the what we call like I mentioned the academic quad

1:22:45basically the center of the campus where I mean it's it'll be nice but um it'll be a place for for people to hide but the upper level and the lower level my understanding is the principles intending to keep it open well the the artistic rendering doesn't show any

1:23:02fencing so is there fencing or is there not fencing fencing yes there is fencing on on which means there's Gates and the gates do have locks probably that is correct okay so I guess I would turn to Mr Faye and say you know this is another one of those areas where we're going to

1:23:18be interested in in the joint use of those spaces so I just wanted to pass that on that obviously the you know the in the super the principles and tent is great but we certainly want to see that followed through I do want to recognize the the district members that are here Charles Ramsey

1:23:37Madeleine Cronenberg and Todd Groves thank you for coming and I appreciate Mr Faye you bringing so many of your staff it really does between the board members the the and the your staff you it really does demonstrate the commitment that you have to our community so I do want to

1:23:53really appreciate that and I also want to just say that the our committee our community is committed to the school district we try and get our votes out and we have supported you guys um and it's my understanding we do field maintenance for you guys and I just wanted to you know acknowledge that that

1:24:09we are helping you guys with the field maintenance and that's part of our community commitment to keeping these world-class Fields up and to that end you know there are some facilities out there that like the turf fields at the high school baseball softball field and the and the future

1:24:25football field those turf fields will they be you know something you're expecting us to provide maintenance on no the the turf fields um actually my staff will provide maintenance um for each site we get um for lack of a better word we get the Zamboni and our Zamboni what it does is

1:24:47uh the the field itself has a lot of pellets that keep the the blade standing upright and when anybody uses the field it tends to shift the pellets and and what this machine does is come back and uh smooth everything out so we have the specialized equipment for the artificial

1:25:09turf fields and we'll we'll take care of those okay but we but as you know our commitment to you we've been maintaining the uh all of our Grassfield yes right absolutely and and we did use the word Turf when we talked about the Castro field but I want to make sure that it's

1:25:25grass that's going to be going to be grass yeah Turf sometimes can be used interchangeably and I wanted to make sure that it was grass that's going back in since you're putting an irrigation system in um it it with that process my experience with Fields is that sometimes you can do

1:25:41a sand underlay or or something like that you're what is your commitment to the Castro field you said Turf but I I know you meant grass but and you you've subsequently said that it's going to be um sod but but is there anything more or is it just going to be rip out the

1:26:00existing grass and put sod down are you going to put a better drainage system in or well considerating you know there there is um standard Landscaping protocols for you to put sod down and so yes you it's basically a layered effect and you'd have to go and and prep it and make sure that it's flat

1:26:20with no rocks and so a district has a standard to make sure that the field goes in um something that you would uh expect a regular field to do so we have those standards and that's the standards that we're going to follow I think Bill can't see me standing up at the podium I just

1:26:37wanted to make a comment our um uh our landscape architect is Gates and Associates so I'm assuming you guys are all familiar with and we will be they'll be in they'll be determining what the protocol is for the installation of the sod so they'll use their recommendations

1:26:52um to give that to the contractor so great thank you just just to be clear the fields we're talking about are the ones we refer to sometimes as Castro Park correct okay it's the gr and having heard the baseball people said that they put a lot of effort into redoing the

1:27:10infield I'm assuming that you're not touching the infield and part of the reason why I'm asking this question is that the the scene between the infield and the Outfield is one that is uh becomes a playing Hazard if it's not done correctly and if we're not adjusting the

1:27:25infield then there potentially is a fair amount of of preparation work in the Outfield so I just wanted that's why I'm following through on this line of questions about the grass uh field that's going to go into the Outfield that will go into the Castro field so I

1:27:41just trying to raise awareness that about that as well so thank you okay the um Castro park is all I'll just call it um is maintained by the will be maintained after it's reconstructed by the city right yes is that you understand okay so it'll go back to the way it was before where we use it for

1:28:07um after school sports um I know my daughter did um some of my other kids probably too I can't remember but the um I want to um I think we've rounded out the field question I think you can see that we're very concerned about the state of the fields and one of the reasons I think

1:28:28you could say that we're concerned about it is we have a lot of students in our community and we don't have enough field space so when we hear that field space is not being available during times that it was supposed to be available it's pretty upsetting to people and it's not just us It's

1:28:48upsetting to it's the kids you know and that's really what this is all about and I um will hope that what's considered more than anything is those kids and that they have a proper place to do athletics which is I have been led to believe and I believe is a very important part of

1:29:13their learning program those Athletics you know get them in shape to learn the academic subjects too so I think we're all very concerned about making sure that that isn't disrupted by um you know things like I mean I get pretty upset when I hear that they couldn't

1:29:33play their game because somebody else is you know staying over and not observing the the protocol for who has the space when um you know it's it's important to all the kids not just some of the kids so anyway um I have a a question of maybe a couple questions about Fairmont School

1:29:59the first question I have is um is is there a change in the number of students that that school will handle from before go back to whatever point in time the old days I'm not sure I can speak to the old days I can I can say that the school is designed for 611 students

1:30:21which is slightly more than than the 1314 school year population I think they had uh so my guess is that it's significant that is significantly more than the free but in the days before say Castro closed is that correct does anybody know is here I guess there are no answers

1:30:47May know who's Dr harder I'm going to take the Mike Dr harder is there about 220 students in Castro when it closed and the vast majority of those students now are at Fairmont okay so whatever population it was it's it's about the difference is about 200 that's what I was kind of wondering

1:31:13so the next part of what I was wondering is in what I considered the old days um the buses the yellow buses were on Stockton and then they moved over to Kearney I guess it is now right they drop off on Stockton now I believe Oh I thought they're being moved back to

1:31:33Stockton I heard did I not hear that right um every time I've been there they've been on Stockton they're staying on Stockton I'm not sure I was I was not sure I was indicating that they were moving from Kearney to Stockton but that's where they're going to be dropping office off of Stockton is

1:31:48on Stockton okay entrance traditionally has been on Kearney and but the buses have dropped off on on uh Stockton for as long as I've been here okay so they're they're just continuing moving the entrance to Stockton the entrance to the school I know there was a plan at

1:32:03one point to put him on Kearney I have no idea whether or not it ever happened not that I'm aware of okay um and um so okay so there are not are no real changes planned there that's what I was wanting was what I was interested in so that's the answer and um where do parents pick up school children

1:32:25that come in cars over on Kearney yes they do okay and so is is that perceived to work pretty well I've I think that you'd be better to ask the parents what they think every one of our schools has a traffic jam you know dropping off in the morning and picking up kids in the afternoon and and giving

1:32:45the tightness of that space I don't think there's any real solution for that uh that that we can offer we can't create a cut out into the school like we're doing in some of our larger sites in order to create drop off and pick up what I was kind of wondering about is

1:32:59the increase if there's going to be an increase in population but of course there's no increase in the drop-off area right well we're anticipating the population is going to it's going to max out with about 20 more students they're about 680 or 690 there now or 585.90 okay so so that you're

1:33:18anticipating there won't be an issue more so than there is participating won't get any worse okay I don't think it's a great situation at any of our schools drop that off and pick me up I'm particularly on the small sides okay that was that was my kind of my question

1:33:34about Fairmont okay um I just had two follow-up questions one is something that you said mayor and that was about the inconveniencing of rescheduling our children from one field to the other you know um it's an actually an inconvenience for the parents too because a lot of our

1:33:52parents they arrange customers and pickups for their children and they think they're going to Castro on the end up at you know the Cerrito Vista or vice versa and and sometimes that's not such an easy thing for the parents because they've already arranged a carpool and

1:34:06now that the arrangements change and you don't know it till you get to the field etc etc so you can understand the problem that that involves and the second thing is is that as far as a follow-up to what mayor Pro tem benesini said and that was about the communication and I know that Mr Fay

1:34:23you're in charge of building so this really isn't within your purview but is it really the uh the athletic director's responsibility to deal with such TDM is is letting ecyb know that there's been a rain out that's rescheduled in the field I mean who should be that communication where does

1:34:41that communication come from and is that something that can be looked at so that ecyb actually knows how they're going to be informed and who's going to do the informing I mean who's going to take that shared responsibility if I could councilman council member um you know we really ought to develop

1:35:01that from our athletic director at El Cerrito High School to the community users and seems to me that there are ways that we can do a better job of uh making sure there is communication there and then I'm also thinking that we can probably figure out a way to notify

1:35:14parents as well we have a great uh phone communication system and so when we move something we ought to be able to you know in in a couple of minutes be able to you know create a phone message that goes out to parents to let them know that and I'll make a note and see if we

1:35:27can't work on that because I think that's really good thank you so much because I just know the frustration of parents when they're moving from one side to another and uh um it does get confusing and what we don't want to have is kids left unsupervised right well well there's

1:35:40somebody in the audience that used to drive my son to pinto and she's sitting in the front row and you know she was always there for my son you know waiting sorry we're on a different field where are you where are you it was before we had cell phones Madeleine okay

1:35:56um so we have complete seems like either first of all are there any I have no requests okay so I think we've completed um the part that's about the project work that's being done and I think you now have another part you want to talk about which is the just just briefly in

1:36:14they apologize for not having the PowerPoint it was just not provided tonight we've had it in the past I asked Mr fave he had it with him he said he didn't so I can just give a quick summary if that is okay or would you like to give us a measure H is on the June 3rd 2014 ballot for a 270 million

1:36:35dollar Bond measure that will be a portioned out over a period of 10 years in here in El Cerrito it deals with replacing the Portables at Madeira Elementary working on a new facility for Cameron School as well as looking at potential joint uses for the portal of play Fields those

1:36:58are the main benefits of what this measure would provide for and it costs 36 dollars per hundred thousand these are all current interest bonds there's no capital appreciation Bonds in this measure and there'll be a portion and paid for under a 30-year time period and

1:37:15so we believe strongly that it enhances what we're doing here in El Cerrito it creates additional opportunity and it makes sure it ensures that all of our schools get the same level of support that the previous schools has because it we believe that it would be really

1:37:31unfair to not complete the phases and if it doesn't also pass because of the decline in assessed valuation Fairmont may have to wait a couple additional years before they're able to issue the bonds because of the prop 39 limitations this helps make sure that Fairmont goes

1:37:50right away moves those kids out of their site onto the Portola temporary campus where we still have to do some additional work when the Fairmont students come there because they have some special ed students in elementary school student needs that have to be addressed and dealt with and so we think

1:38:09that this measures a modest one it's not as big as many of the passes 270 million Which is less than four of the other Bond measures so we feel pretty good about this we think that this constituent base is going to benefit from we've been able to show that through the years at Harding at Madera

1:38:27for those in the Kensington area Kensington Hilltop El Cerrito High School and Portola so we're excited about this we believe it's the right choice for voters to make sure that all these things do get completed and no student is Left Behind in terms of equity of throughout the whole Bond

1:38:46program because we're only talking about 10 to 15 schools remaining we believe this helps create the fairness to all kids anymore when you were talking about the portal of fields what site were you talking about the old the Phil we not not where your Castro Park is but the up

1:39:09off of uh the Moser that site where the lower Playfield the playground in the upper play lot there could be some discussions about how we could collaborate we've had a lot of discussion about that site uh here I think and um some of us have a vision for that site that would include

1:39:31the lower site being the possible home for our new library okay I'm just saying or whatever and um and I think um I've heard I've certainly heard and I certainly maybe have that Vision myself that the uh what I think of it as being three sites really three levels and

1:39:52because it is three levels and I think of the upper two as being play fields are those more what you were thinking about when you said joint use feels it's whatever you want to create and opportunities that come up the brainstorm it has to pass if it doesn't pass then there's no conversation it's

1:40:08assuming it passes well I want to wait till it pass and then people can have the conversation about what use they'd like to have I mean I think we'll have some Community public meetings and I think it's an opportunity to have this conversation and I don't really have any

1:40:23particular desire for any any I'm open and listening willing to so whatever the constituents feels best would you commit to this having the school come School District come back here and have a joint conversation about it oh absolutely assuming the major passes

1:40:42yeah absolutely I think that that's what we want to do we just did a joint we just had a joint Fields with the city of Pinole so we just finished bidding that out and the Pinole middle school is going to have on AP and way is going to have a brand new community Fields project right there so

1:40:59we have history of doing this with with other other entities Helms as well at uh in the city of San Pablo they have their own community building and there's the fields that are being there that are going to be used by the community we just finished it up okay we're actually

1:41:13having a ribbon cutting on the 30th of this month and with that I want to also announce that we're having a big community meeting on May 31st from 11 to 1 at the Castro field Playhouse or you know what a the Castro what do they call it Clubhouse the Castro Clubhouse from 11 to 1. to talk

1:41:37about the status update for the Neighbors so they know what is taking place with the Portola project and get a better idea of what's what it looks like in terms of schedule and that date um brings a major Bell in my mind I think there's something and they'll be noticed

1:41:55a certain way yeah we're going to be giving notice out tonight I'm just mentioning because we're here at the council but there's going to be an announcement made in the neighbors and people in the area are going to get copies in the portal appearance we're having our Greenway celebration at

1:42:11that at that time okay just which we hope is I believe a major celebration here the reopening of the greenway great um well yeah except it conflicts okay there's always something going on Janet that's right um anyway um so are there any speaker slips I have no requests okay

1:42:33um so why don't we go and you've already so you just did the presentation on the measure which is Major uh H yeah so I would like to suggest that we agendized this item for consideration of support at our next meeting sure that's good yes thank you yeah we did receive the

1:42:54support recently unanimously the El Cerrito Democratic Club and so we're we're excited about them we have many teachers parents principals and community members and the voters have always especially in this area been very much supportive and committed to it and I would like to thank you all for

1:43:12coming I know it's a lot of time and we appreciate that and I'm also looking forward to your working with the individual members of our sports teams uh to work out the the issues that have been brought up tonight I'm sorry one final thing I think that I neglected to

1:43:30mention which is important is about student achievement and the new infrastructure technology that's going to be instituted at all of the campuses to ensure that kids are prepared and ready for the smarter balance assessment tests that now are mandated to be online

1:43:46we're going through that process and we're actually ahead of schedule on that because we have two of our board members who serve on the technology Community we're making huge Investments to make sure that happens because we're going to be transferring out of paper and Pad

1:43:59onto tablets and so we have to be prepared and ready and part of measure rates really addresses that issue and make sure that happens as well as getting improved science labs and technology so I just did I I'm remiss for not having mentioned that's a big piece of this for all the schools in El

1:44:16Cerrito and throughout the district really making sure that students remain competitive so that they can be ready and prepared for 10 testing and being able to get ready for college well now you've done it so now you are not remiss thank you very much and with that we will move on to what

1:44:37normally is kind of the beginning of our agenda which is the adoption of the consent calendar I'll move the consent calendar and ask do we have to read the title of the ordinance establishing the measure a swim center we do okay and I need to I need to dig dig that out so I read it properly

1:45:00um I will move the consent counter calendar and read the title of agenda item 5B and the ordinance of the city of El Cerrito setting reduced tax rates for fiscal year 2014-15 only for the special tax imposed pursuant to chapter 4.56 of the El Cerrito municipal code

1:45:22second it's been SEC if a motion was made by Lyman seconded by Bridges all in favor please say aye aye aye in the opposition any abstention motion carries unanimously with that we will move on to item seven which is the capital Improvement program study session

1:45:51and there is a handout I believe in our packet paper reduction sounds pretty good I have a lot of it up here right now baby Mary not yet you got me now all right good evening again um mayor Abelson and council members my name is Yvette Ortiz an interim Public Works director and city engineer tonight

1:46:33I'd like to give you an overview of the city's um Capital Improvement program um the status of the the status of the current 10-year program and potential additions in to the Future CIP as well as discussion and next steps as part of the 2004-2015 budget process

1:46:57so first in terms of overview the CIP I want to talk about the purpose of a CIP program the project types funding categories how projects are selected and prioritized and then other guiding principles in terms of the Strategic plan framework so the purpose of icip is to basically

1:47:18identify how the city will maintain and enhance its public physical assets to ensure that it meets the needs of our residents and businesses the city's Capital Improvement Capital Improvement program is a 10-year plan and it identifies the timing and the funding

1:47:36for projects in that time frame for each project in the CIP there is a detailed project information sheet that includes a project description the general plan object that it meets the need for the project and the service level is trying to achieve other pertinent issues and the status of the

1:47:53project whether it's planning design or construction as well as the estimated Capital cost to implement the project the project types are divided into several categories the first is Administration it's just the general project category that is supposed to capture projects that are multi-year but

1:48:15not necessarily a physical Improvement we have um we're still strategizing if that's a good category to maintain in the CIP as the CIP is intended for physical physical improvements but in the past it's been a good way to track needs um over multiple years and also projects

1:48:34that don't fall into the other other categories including facilities Parks Creeks Trails streets and storm drains the CIP also identifies various funding categories that include secure sources that are available to the city on an annual basis currently the CIP ident um

1:48:56the current CIP for this fiscal year identifies funding sources um including measure a street improvements measure a swim center measure say CJ which is the County transportation Transportation sales tax return to Source funds that's the current funding that's secured and available for projects in

1:49:18this current fiscal year past and potential future sources that are available to the city include gas tax measure J storm drain parking Loop fees the general fund which has been used in the past but has not currently being used and of course Redevelopment was used in the past and

1:49:35is no longer available other funding categories in the CIP include sources that are not secured to the city but are available such as grants and most of the current fiscal year we're relying on a lot on competitive grants and most um the sources of those grants are

1:49:53transportation and urban Greening and they include both federal and state programs past and also a potential future Grant sources continue to be Transportation grants Community Development grants and sustainable Community grants the CIP also has a category called unidentified

1:50:13non-secure which we see too much of in our current CIP program okay the project selection process I was just going to quickly review so the CIP is basically a document that's a it's a 10-year plan that's updated every year and we update the the plan based on any

1:50:34um recently adopted plans or other community initiatives that have been undertaken in the past year other city council objectives and priorities that have been identified public health and safety needs that have come to our attention and of course the availability of funding we select

1:50:49projects based on potential to obtain grants and we're always looking out for future grant opportunities and the availability of funding also helps shape the projects we select on the timeline for the projects once we um City staff reviews these needs and priorities we coordinate

1:51:09within with other departments for Parks projects we also touch base with the park and rec commission and then we come back to city council and request that you approve revenues and expenditures for the next current the next fiscal year as part of your annual budget

1:51:26process after that as Pro as projects are identified as additional projects are identified or other funding sources are identified we can come back we sometimes come back to city council for mid-year adjustments laughs so how I just wanted to touch base in terms of

1:51:47how we prioritize or how we identify needs and other priorities as I mentioned earlier we looked at we look at City plans the first and foremost we look at the general plan strategies goals and policies for example the general plan identified specific strategies to improve San Pablo Avenue

1:52:08um San Pablo Avenue as an economic development Corridor and a lot of the efforts surrounding the San Pablo Avenue streetscape project were generated by the general plan the general plan also identifies other plans that need to be developed such as the circulation plan for pedestrians and

1:52:27bicyclists so we also identify projects from those from those plans that are adopted by sitting Camp city council including plans like the Ada transition plan the lonely Greener master plan the kind of action plan and the Strategic plan we also look at other health and safety

1:52:46needs studies and assessments that have been done such as the structural Facilities Management plan fire flow study and the traffic safety audit to identify projects these are all past plans that have fed the current CIP and finally but not least we also look at various Community initiatives and

1:53:06commission initiatives to identify priorities for the community including public forums and surveys for example the library Bond measure that was considered several years ago led to A needs assessment and that is currently being updated as part of the input that

1:53:23we got from the community when the Strategic plan was being developed also a public input that we got that highlighted residents desire and priority for improving our streets led to the measure a street Improvement program we've also identified projects as part of the measure ww effort

1:53:46I wanted to also kind of um Identify some of the guiding principles in terms of the Strategic plan framework we our goal as part of the CIP program is to deliver exemplary government services and Achieve long-term Financial stability by partnering with other agencies Bart neighboring cities Contra

1:54:08Costa Health obtaining community outreach and and incorporating that community outreach as we develop our projects we try to achieve long-term Financial stability by leveraging secure funding sources that are available to the city such as measure a with other funding sources

1:54:24other Federal incent the federal and state Grant sources that are available and we're on we're continuously looking for grant opportunities to fund the CIP because currently a lot of the current special funds that have been used in the past for Capital Improvements are being

1:54:43used for operating expenses and so we we need to look for other sources of funding to implement and rcip we're also coordinating with other departments to to ensure that when we pursue a new funding opportunity we know both the benefits and costs of that funding opportunity

1:55:05the next three strategic plan goals talked speak to the type of projects that we Implement current for example go see to deepen a sense of place and Community identity we currently have five projects largely funded by competitive grants that that promote strong neighborhoods and develop

1:55:25recreational opportunities these projects include Central and such projects as Central and Liberty streetscape project they include the yoloni agreement Place making project and Huber Park improvements in terms of goal D we actually have no major funded projects other than some

1:55:49minor measure a swim center efforts including the replacement of the pool heaters and some Landscaping improvements we staff is working to develop a framework so that we can address a backlog of needed repairs and improvements to our aging City facilities we do have various projects that ensures

1:56:11ensure the Public's health and safety in terms of mostly Transportation related safety projects again these are largely funded by competitive grants and then a projects that Foster environmental sustainability a lot of these projects overlap with both goals c and e

1:56:30um and I'll talk about more about these projects later on just so going on to the current the status of the current 10-year CIP I'll give you some summary of the program um highlight some of the projects that are active this year identify projects that have were planned

1:56:52for the next two years and then um list the projects that have are unfunded So currently the 10-year CIP has 40 plus projects identified for implementation there's 19 million dollars of secure funding sources in those 10 years seven million of that is unfunded as we

1:57:17had assumed that there was some potential for General fan support or some competitive grants in the next few years but we haven't secured those grants and we don't foresee um that we will be obtaining General open support for those efforts in the next couple of years

1:57:33outside those 10 years the CIP shows 110 million in capital needs that have no identified funding source and therefore we haven't identified a timeline for them just going back in terms of uh so I went there I said there was about seven million dollars in funded needs in

1:57:58the next two years and these this slide highlights those projects um energy and water efficiency we are getting some savings from some of the Energy Efficiency projects that we recently implemented that we would use to um to invest in some other efficiency projects but we also need

1:58:18some Grant um grants to supplement that we've also in the CIP this is a general Administration project we identified a general Plan update we've submitted a Grant application for that but that has not been secured and then there's also a various facility projects access

1:58:34modifications to facilities facilities structural seismic repairs and um so forth the traffic safety and management program and the safe routes to school programs those are programs that typically have Grant sources available and so they're identify identified as

1:58:51programs in rcip and we're hopeful that we can get grants to implement those projects in the future continuing on the current fiscal year 2013-14 CIP we have 17 active projects either in planning design and construction two of them in our Administration two facilities including

1:59:11the solar project and the Swim Center improvements One Park project was the Huber Park project improvements project two Trail projects and 10 streets and transportation projects again there's so many streets and transportation projects because that's where the grants are

1:59:27um and another semi-statistic is that the adopted budget revenues for these projects is 5.3 million dollars of that 4 million is outside grants 1.1 million is measure a street streets improvements and then a fraction are the measure a swim center and a smaller fraction is a

1:59:48measure CJ um County transportation sales tax which we use for Access improvements curb ramps along our streets um so these are some of the project highlights we've completed three projects this year and we're still in the process of closing them out but the construction is complete and that

2:00:10includes the Potrero between 55th Street and East 56th Street that's at the at the I-80 off ramp that was um largely Grant funded and it was completed earlier in this early summer 2013. we also completed the Mosier Ashbury pedestrian and bicycle Corridor improvements project that was

2:00:33again largely um Grant funded and the city-wide solar project was just recently completed as well there are several projects that are currently under construction and anticipated to be completed the spring or summer and that includes Central and Liberty streetscape improvements

2:00:53projects the 2013 14th Street Improvement Paving project the alone agreement major Crossing improvements project and the ilani greenway rain garden and natural area project which is about to start break ground in the next month design there are several projects under

2:01:14design that we anticipate to complete in the summer and fall including another Paving project which is supported by a Federal Grant in a measure eight Street Improvement funds a traffic safety and management program project to install install speed feedback Raider signs additional curb

2:01:33ramps and the Ohlone Greenway Safeway path connection and then there are three other projects in the planning concept design Huber Park which I previously mentioned we also have a grant funded project to improve the Arlington curve at Brewster's at Brewster where we

2:01:50implemented some temporary improvements about a year ago and um also the yoloni greenway BART station area Place making improvements project which we talked about a at a council meeting in in March so um in terms of the next couple of years the CIP the current CIP identified

2:02:12a few additional projects that have secured funding sources The aloni Greenway finding project another annual Street Improvement project and some storm drain major storm drain repairs we're going to finish paying off The Debt Service to the um for the storm drain

2:02:30fund this year and so there will be additional money that's available for Street improvements we're still trying to balance find the right balance between funding operating expenses and Capital Improvements and we'll be working through that in the next few weeks there was also additional projects

2:02:50that were unfunded and I mentioned this before okay this is the big list of projects that are beyond the current 10-year CIP that don't have a timeline um that's the 110 million dollars I mentioned previously that are unfunded and have no specific timeline and I've just I put the the

2:03:11cost estimates in parentheses we still have to update these but I just wanted to give you kind of a scale of the projects there's fire flow upgrades that were identified as part of the 2006 fireflow study access modification to facilities that have been identified as as part of

2:03:29the Ada transition plan and as well as the the facilities management plan the library the singer Center the public safety building Courtyard improvements these are all major um Improvement projects facility projects that have no funding identified we also have various Park projects that

2:03:49we're going to be working with the park and rec commission to consolidate and update and we're thinking that the best thing to do for those projects is to update the needs assessment or um our create a master plan to identify the park facilities that are most needed in

2:04:06the facility in the city and develop a timely timeline for them we also have the implementation of the Ohlone Greenway master plan improvements that have we've done a lot of work lately but there's still more to do and that's um not necessarily there's no identified funding sources and then I've

2:04:23mentioned a lot of the other Street Improvement projects but we also have a couple that are related to repairs Wildcat Drive repair bobber retaining wall replacement and there's the Del Norte Tod Transit oriented development that that's kind of a big pot of money that we've put out

2:04:42there in terms of addressing that not the circulation parking and access improvements and it's been in the CIP for a while okay in terms of proposed editions for the next um your CIP what we're again we're looking at current initiatives current um initiatives that have been underway

2:05:05in the last year to identify projects we don't have funding sources for them but we think it would be worthwhile to add them to the CIP as a need and work to identify a funding and a timeline for them in the future there's been a lot of interest um from various groups and most recently

2:05:25because of the purchase of the Madera property for the hillside Natural Area and so we're proposing to add that as a project in the CIP to look at Trail Improvement and Trail maintenance and development and Landscaping and management and Improvement we're also looking at adding and again a

2:05:46new we heard about this earlier from Susan Schwartz at pentafive Creek of the need to have a more comprehensive plan for the hillside Natural Area we're also proposing to add city-wide paths stairway and Boardwalk Rehabilitation and Improvement project a lot of this is

2:06:04um going to build on the effort of the trail trackers over the last year but also it's a it's a plan that was identified in the circulation it's a project that was identified in the circulation plan for pedestrians and bicyclists and it was also identified as part of the West County Transit

2:06:22enhancement um needs and because some of those Hillside trails in north side of town can provide a convenient short access to the BART station but they need further study there's also Urban Forest management and plan improvements we also want to look at start trying to

2:06:43develop that framework to rehabilitate public facilities as Community focal points our Recreation Department is working to identify Canon improvements to the canyon trail clubhouse that can serve as a prototype for other improvements that can be implemented at some of our other City facilities I'm

2:07:03sorry I'm running out of steam here so and then quick major maintenance and restoration along several of our creeks let's see um and then also when we have several projects and several planning efforts underway right now including San Pablo Avenue complete streets plan the

2:07:22active Transportation plan and the urban Greening plan so although we're not proposing that to add any specific projects at this time we do anticipate when those projects are adopted that we will come back and provide a program of priority and long-term projects in rcip

2:07:41so discussion and next steps I mean at this point I'd like to open it up to council questions con comments and possible direction we will also work with other City based on your input we will work with other departments to update the current CIP projects and develop a new CIP projects for the next

2:08:00CIP we will also obtain input from park and rec Commission on the parks projects and then we will incorporate all this information into the proposed budget that will be presented to you on Monday June 2nd sure I'm going to start by channeling my inner council member Friedman plans so

2:08:21many plans um but I want to point out the fact that by having all these plans that we have uh it it had gave us shovel ready projects that allowed us to get much of the uh our recovery funds um It prepares us for good Bond applications so the fact that we have this many plans is is not a bad thing it

2:08:45helps guide staff as as you put our budgets together but it but I do want to find out if there's a way for these plans to potentially be more available for people so that people can understand all of the good work that you guys have done and and uh so I I really would like to

2:09:03encourage you to create an online library where our plans do reside that that people can can go and see them unless there's something like that already I mean we do we have them at the library I mean are they available here readily available here we we have some um plans available on

2:09:23our website at the public works department lists some of the most um most commonly referenced plans on our web web page we have a link to that and there's other departments who also provide their plans but we we do see the the need to provide an online library of

2:09:39the current plans that are available electronically and then work to provide other plans online and provide that online library that you're recommending right thank you um with with regards to you had the 110 million dollar slide um and and in essence uh if I understood

2:10:00your presentation that this evening none of those things that are listed on that slide which which include the library the senior center the public safety building none of those things are inside our 10-year planning Horizon at this time not at this time correct

2:10:22um and uh I understand one of the things that was on no I'm trying to find the slide that this was on uh one of the things that you were looking at was potentially working with the park and rec uh commission to um do a master plan of of potential Park needs just

2:10:46curious what that entails if that's a I know other neighboring jurisdictions spent quite a bit of money on a a plan that didn't necessarily achieve its objectives and uh used a lot of resources to develop a plan that could potentially have been done internally with the with the members of their park

2:11:11and rec commission yeah and I think I don't have a specific you know uh plan in mind I do want to go back to the park and rec commission and get their input as to what type of I know they've been doing some work um going out and visiting some of the parks themselves there are previous plans that

2:11:27are available um I think right now we're trying to scope out the need for a master plan um is it in-house is it do we use consultants and then also potentially look for Grants to help us complete that Master planning effort um that's all I have for questions thank

2:11:48you thank you thank you for the presentation um a couple of questions for you so on that 110 million dollar slide it looked like the four major facilities the library the senior center the public safety building and and others totaled about 83 million of the 110 so just to

2:12:06kind of think about what that 110 is spanning and and I would assume that almost all of the items of that 83 million those are traditionally funded locally I guess I'm trying to think of this 110 million and how much of it would likely come from local sources versus

2:12:23leveraging outside grants obviously there's no Library Bond at this point that would be sort of the main one that would come to mind Karen if you can help me on that one so as far as you mean the potential um ballot that could go ballot measure I mean of the 110 million it I it seems

2:12:47like a very very large proportion of that 110 million would be locally funded as opposed to getting a large chunk of that money from Grants or state funding or other sorts of sources I'm sorry the 110 I'm did I miss something with the 110 million yep we currently have 110 million dollars in

2:13:10unfunded CIP needs for um facilities and about 8 000 of the 80 million of that is for facilities so I guess the question is and maybe Scott can help me here too is what funding sources are available for facilities like I would say that the vast majority of the things that we put

2:13:30on the list as unfunded are local stuff I mean I think I think where our we use our plans and we're regret we're so aggressive with grants are are things that um we can go out and get Regional funding that are safety improvements that are Transportation related or traffic

2:13:48related um I think the things largely on this list are are our facilities and infrastructure that we're going to have to fix yeah I guess that Del Norte Tod might be the main area where there might be a significant amount of Grant or CCTA or other types of funding sources

2:14:06Regional funding sources yes that seemed right okay great thank you um in terms of the selection you had a chart where you noted that there are I think 40 plus projects on the CIP and then there's sort of a process that's gone through in order to prioritize those different projects I wanted to

2:14:24hear just a little bit more about whether or not I mean 40 isn't a huge number is the process kind of you know staff sitting around and discussing these or is there a formal process where you have sort of ranking criteria and you try to put these in in a distinct

2:14:41order or I guess I just want to understand a little bit more about how how items are prioritized yeah I would say it's an internal process that's uh more informal because we're really just updating the CIP it's been we're not updating completely updating all 10

2:14:57years um but we're just um we're not redoing the all 10 years but we're updating we're looking at which projects have new funding opportunities which projects others potential Partnerships with other agencies to implement which projects have been highlighted as priorities as

2:15:15part of count city council or other community initiatives so and then we do touch base with park and rec Commission in the past and we'll do so again and then we do bring it forward to you and then so so you so that sounds like how a project gets on the CIP that's

2:15:34sort of the process of how one would be added on one of your slides at Slide Five on our printout where there's a project selection and there are one two three four five bullets are all of those I guess I'm trying to understand when you look at those 40 Projects how do you figure out what to

2:15:52tackle first are is it whether or not they're hitting any of these items like obviously health and safety is extremely important whether or not they're in a city-wide plan do you kind of look at those bullets and just you know check boxes and that's how the prioritization takes place a lot of it

2:16:09is is that the basically we go with health and safety first and then also matching the available funding I think a lot of it has to do with what funding is available but where we see um because if you look at the last few years of the CIP it's largely funded by

2:16:26grants so we're looking at the grant sources that are available um great I might I guess I might suggest another item to to consider and and I was thinking when next time we put together the CIP it might be nice to have the projects uh laid out on a map and another another criteria would be

2:16:45how we're making Investments around the city um and you know whether or not the Investments we're making are sort of benefiting the whole city or benefiting a smaller geography yeah please that's it well I would also add that um we have we've very actively asked the residents

2:17:03what their priorities are I mean the reason we have measure a and the Improvement to the streets is because we went out and surveyed multiple times and streets came to the top of the list and and that became what we funded the last survey we did the library moved to the

2:17:17top when we asked we asked about Capital facilities but also in relation to funding open space other other things that have come on our radar screen either because the The public's asked for it our plans have identified it so I think it's I think we do do sort of a

2:17:39um a real statistically valid Outreach to find out what people want to pay for because the projects that as we said that are largely El Cerrito specific projects are locally funded so that's how the big stuff has got on the list right thank you um one item you mentioned about further

2:18:02study was city-wide paths you mentioned something about the north side of the city and how there's a desire to sort of better connect that area to the BART station via um via walking paths was that done as part of the um or is that being done now as part of the is it the bike ped circulation plan

2:18:23so it was actually identified as a project in the prior circulation plan for pets bike Peds and pedestrians and bicyclists the active Transportation plan is updating that plan so yes it was identified as a need okay it was also identified as a need recently as part of

2:18:41the West County Transportation enhancement project I mean Transit enhancement plan that was developed in 2009 and again it would that that effort was looking at the last mile connection to a transit station and then identified that the need to complete those Pathways so the further

2:18:59study you were speaking of was less was more like very specific of how do we actually make you know how more from an engineering perspective of how to complete the paths rather than you know the paths are needed you kind of know where they are so it's less like a

2:19:14planning level plan and more of a design type of plan it was just more details that was more Transit oriented versus our circulation plan for beds and bikes looks at Citywide destinations and the West County Transit enhancement plan was looking at really connections to Transit

2:19:29hubs right and the last question I have is regar is sort of regarding process so process of implementing the the project so once the project was on the CIP and it gets funded and kind of goes through that process um then how it actually gets into the ground I I've mentioned to you that I

2:19:47was a little disappointed with the the lights that went up on on Central and how they're Globe shaped and and are Illuminating that there was a great need to have lights on that street I completely agree that the street was was very dark and there are so many pedestrians that walk there in the

2:20:01winter time it gets dark right when everybody's going home but and I followed the project but when it got to the point of actually selecting the globe I you know I I lost my my attention straight a bit um so I want to hear more about the process of of sort of consultation I'm

2:20:17sure you consult with the police department and other sorts of departments on giving input on on projects but I wanted to hear more about the actual maybe the vendor should have actually been the one who mentioned to the city that this is a globe that will illuminate the night sky in cities who

2:20:32are concerned with keeping a dark sky probably wouldn't have selected that Globe so I'm wondering what is actually like the final step of making the purchases and who who's being consulted I guess so I just want to touch a little bit on on the Central and Liberty

2:20:45streetscape um lights it's they are going to be LED lights and they are going to be directional so although they are globe lights without a shield they are direct they're not like the lights that you see on family now so the lights inside have a cap on them is that the

2:20:59idea they're they're actually just directional so they're um they're angled towards the sidewalk and Street and away from the nearby homes so they are definitely an improvement over what you see on Fairmont and Schmidt now um they're not dark sky rated they don't

2:21:17have the shield so that's something we can work on into the in the future as we develop those policies for the city in terms of what how we coordinate with other departments we do touch base with the departments at the planning level in terms of what they would like to see

2:21:33um in terms of the project design and then we'll touch base with them again at the concept design level and the detailed design level and get inputs from the police department the fire department on the Community Development Department and then and then finally produce the final

2:21:51plans that will be um out to bid great and I I wanted to just say that this has been it's been a huge amount to kind of absorb this presentation I think when I go through the CIP previously I'm just flipping through the pages and looking at the project so this has been really helpful

2:22:06to give kind of the global perspective of what you're kind of trying to implement on a day-to-day basis so thank you yeah it is a bit overwhelming but thank you for all your work um I had a couple questions and and funny that you brought up the lights because Janet and I went to a function

2:22:23at the theater are those lights actually on because the night we left the theater they actually it was really dark still I don't think the lights were on at all no they're not we had we had hoped they would be on by now but we are waiting for um we got a date from PG e on when

2:22:38they will energize the lights and that's May 29th I just checked with our consultant so that's the date we have for the lights to be energized there there the lights are installed the Globes are in everything's ready it just we're waiting for enter for energy it

2:22:52wasn't interesting to see Chasing Ice that that night anyway um and I I just had a question on the um CIP wishlist is the creek major maintenance and restoration and Huber is on that list and there's also Huber is on well the park probably is um slated for work to be done completed

2:23:14summer and fall of 2014 on one of the other slides which I think the slides that on the presentation our packet were a little different but it was to be funded by measure WWE and I know with park and rec that was sort of a high priority item but they're part of the

2:23:29issue with Huber is there is an area that we are I know that you know this area where the sidewalk is starting to crumble at the upper part of the creek because we have our city signs there and there's some big boulders there probably to help prevent any more degradation to that Creek what is slated

2:23:50for Huber Parkin in this project that might be finished by Fall okay so the measure WWE project is um gonna it's 100 170 thousand dollars and it's the improvements that we're prioritizing and we still have to go touch base back with the community because it's been a while

2:24:06but the improvements you're prioritizing are improvements to the lower court um basketball court um in additions of um improving the picnic facilities and playgrounds and doing some access improvements so more lower lower the lower half of the park there's been a recent washout on Huber

2:24:30Creek that is causing that pathway to crumble and that's what I'm looking as an unfunded unfunded need and we have made it safe but we um any work in the creek requires um significant permitting process and so we'd have to do that we'd have to design it and then we'd have to fund the

2:24:53construction of it so that's one of the efforts that I see as unfunded right now since the measure ww funds are going to be used more for the play the play areas yeah I figured it would take a lot more money than what we actually have in WWE left over now and then I just have one

2:25:08silly question that is what's a fire flow right upgrade a fire flow upgrade that's in the uh I'm going to ask I'd just like to hear it see him get up and and speak to us thank you everybody I'm Lance Maples I'm your fire chief and I appreciate that question a fire flow upgrade is where we

2:25:27designated a part of the community where we could use increased water flow in the event of a fire this specific project is east of Arlington towards Wildcat Canyon we've determined in there back in 06 the city funded a fire flow study which study what a fire would be like coming

2:25:44out of the canyon into that residential area what type of flow we would need it it set the tone and and the plan for this project we're just looking for creative ways to fund it we're looking for some Hazard mitigation grant money every year and and we stay plugged in so

2:25:59it's it's an important project we've done some very similar projects off Lake Drive and Grizzly Peak in Kensington with our contract relationship up there and we have been able to complete those projects up there all right thank you so much okay thank you um I um I'm not sure if I have any other

2:26:18questions I think you did a very thorough report and combined with the questions it was quite thorough are there any uh I have no request to speak okay then this is a report we don't have any action to take correct or do we there's no there's a study session yeah

2:26:43a comments questions any possible Direction I have made a note of your comments and um you know doing a map and listing the maps thank you and I'll just definitely review your comments tonight and incorporate that as we develop the CIP for next the only thing I would say is

2:26:59that um it seems like that um I mean it's a long period of time [Music] anyway but and you know who knows what could happen in that period of time but it does seem like grant funding sources are pretty important in general and we need to just be aware of possible

2:27:25grants and and um it does help to reduce the list um even if it's sometimes not our top priority if I mean if we can get the whole thing funded by a grant um I mean it should it should certainly get consideration yes I would say may I I saved my comments for after in case there was any

2:27:54public comments so I I would like to hopefully encourage us to um to give some to weigh in on uh if you could go back or actually to your slide probably your slide 23 is the third from the end it's your wish list I would like to have us weigh in and maybe a little bit on this wish list it

2:28:16does include some of the things that our public spoke to today keep going it's probably the next uh is that potential additions maybe that's what it was yeah potential additions this one um you know you I think you were looking for some guidance potentially to sort of

2:28:36determine whether or not um the for example the hillside Natural Area improvements or the city-wide path and pedestrian improvements and I and I'd be professionally remiss not to Echo what Miss Schwartz said to us today about the natural resources that we have in our uh public space so I I certainly

2:28:59would really would like to encourage us to make some sort of effort towards the hillside Natural Area improvements it's really incumbent upon us to to do our best to be good stewards of our natural resources in that area so that would be my comment or my in request for you guys to Echo that or

2:29:26encourage that something about the slide um because I think if we think we can't just be individuals we've got to get some sort of consensus well I guess the concern that I would have about a lot of this is that if there isn't money um it's an academic exercise so I mean I think

2:29:52it's um I think I'm seeing Hillside Natural Area improvements as being discovering what was said earlier at our meeting by Susan Swartz um maybe I'm wrong here but um the um of what's needed is funding so if we're going to do anything we're going to have to find funding or

2:30:23I or it you know we've real the funding is really key it is Yvette can you tell us on the CIP there are 40 plus projects and 17 are funded is that what I remembered those are 17 active projects I I have to I don't have the number of the number that are actually fully

2:30:41funded oh okay I see so what does it mean so these potential CIP editions what does it mean to get on the CIP that means then you start looking for funding I assume exactly and we and we could identify a timeline for them and and just identify and so a timeline you'd

2:30:57like to see something done in the next five years and um at this time we would show non-secured unidentified funding and then we would you know over the next couple years look for those funding opportunities I think by putting it on the CIP it it steps it up in its

2:31:15definition so that a project then goes past a simple sentence to um maybe there's a picture of it or maybe there's a description of it there might be a conceptual cost estimate of it there might even be money set aside to to do the plan for that you know for whatever the expenditure would be so so

2:31:38by putting it on the CIP it doesn't mean that we're going to do it in 1516 we could say that this is something we want on 1718 when funding hopefully is better uh but it but by putting it on 1718 it means that there are some long-range things that need to begin now that might be uh

2:31:58for example rare plant studies or other types of vegetation studies in that in the hillside Natural Area that we might have funding for or we might be able to find other ways to to get that work done for us so by saying we would like to to put it onto that list of 40 we're we're

2:32:19essentially giving it an unfunded nod because I do agree mayor that obviously we have to have funding in order to implement these we don't have to have funding to start thinking about them and and trying to look for funding for them and trying to Define them I guess what I

2:32:37was that I I don't know if it even is has meaning but it would seem to me that something that could be helpful would be to develop a a um to look at the possibility of acquiring funds from the outside in various ways and to see where we might be able to do that

2:33:04we've got staff who have been very very successful at that in the past and I suspect they still have the same skill set they do and there are there are state and local funds that might be available right and um but I don't know in what area particular you know I mean I you know things keep

2:33:24changing in that Arena and so I don't is there anything on here that even addresses the possibility of seeing where there might a plan for for looking for funding not right now but we would you know if this project was added as a CIP project we would con and focus our attention on it

2:33:47and look for those opportunities those funding sources and then if we for example put everything on then we I mean we may be using up resources that we on City staff that we don't have so there is that dilemma of do we have the St the staff resources even look for the funding

2:34:10and I also recognize that um so it you know it's it's it's it's it's not an easy thing um so I'm just I'm I'm not really I guess my request position I'm just right my my request is that these things be put on inside the 10-year Capital Improvement plan whether they're in year eight or

2:34:33year 10 or year six um I would I would like to see these three the the hillside Citywide path and urban Forest management plans be part of that group of 40 whether it's funded or unfunded and and just to clarify then do you think the gold D the items under Goldie

2:34:52should not or you haven't you don't have an opinion on those ones at this time I'm I'm focused on the upper three at this moment I'm not saying that I'm not I mean uh those are definitely things that need to get done and if we want to put all six of them on I would not be

2:35:08opposed to that but I I'm sensitive to the mayor you saying that you know we don't want to dilute our staff resources or spread them too thin and you've got what's the meaning of the two bullets I guess so some so does that mean strategic plan gold D these are the only other the only

2:35:26projects that are considered to be on the CIP happen to fall under strategic plan goal d as opposed to the other goals so these are just categories of items they're not prioritized in any way correct okay I I applaud council member Lyman for trying to push us to do something on

2:35:43this slide um I don't when I if I were to figure out how to prioritize these I think I would probably do what you all have been doing and try to figure out what's the most neglected what could what might be the cheapest or dollars per use or something like that some sort of cost

2:35:57benefit of how much money we could spend versus how much greater use or greater enjoyment someone you can get out of these items so I guess I'm I'm not prepared to think about whether or not one is category one and one is category two but I would look to you to come up

2:36:12with some sort of analysis about just a quick analysis based on your professional opinion of which of these we could get the most bang for our buck in terms of elevating them to the CIP for further study so I don't have Direction on that at this point my only comments about it would be if

2:36:28you were going to put um well the top three I would put the bottom three and I think that the situation up at Huber with the the creek cross storage if you've gone up there and looked at sidewalk is really practically into the creek now there's there's homes that are pretty close as

2:36:44far as the park facilities and rehab and improvements I mean we have to think about the fact that you know they're very near their lifespan where they're not going to be able to be rented anymore because they're in very poor shape and so that's loss of income I mean granted we don't

2:36:59about you know we don't really count on that money in the big scheme of things in our budgeting but they're not going to be rentable very much longer and as far as Canyon Trail Clubhouse I think measure a we can actually the voters approved misery also included Canyon Trail in it

2:37:17but actually so that's the one funded effort on on this list that was part of what measurie was and so I know that a lot of that money is getting diverted to the other needs at under Missouri but we could consider that somewhat funded maybe but I don't know how I mean there was a little bit

2:37:36of work done on that many years ago maybe a decade ago but so and I'd probably put I'd put at least those bottom three up there so so I'm I'm content with adding all six as we're uh council member benassini has suggested to go into your normal meat grinder that

2:37:56you used for deciding what projects go forward so motion um is emotion emotion required counselor I can't remember what we decided last week about giving direction it's not required but we at least need some indication that that if this is going to be this is the direction of the council

2:38:12I I so move that that all six of these um uh potential CIP editions be considered to be added to the CIP a second the motion okay motion by um council member Lyman seconded by mayor Pro tem benacini all in favor please say aye aye aye in the opposition Obsession motion carries unanimously

2:38:37okay with that we will move on on our agenda and say after saying thank you very much oh thank you very much that was okay great report and um the next item on our agenda I would is what I would love to table item eight and move to item number okay so there's been a recommendation to table number

2:38:57eight is that okay with everyone okay uh we'll now adjourn the meeting uh to our next meeting on Tuesday May the 20th and